Campaign finance reformers call on Inslee to disavow 2020 super PAC

Politico

A campaign finance reform group is pushing Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to publicly disavow a super PAC staffed by close allies that is supporting his presidential bid.

Inslee joined the presidential race last Friday, but days before he launched his bid, the former political director of the Democratic Governors Association — which Inslee chaired in 2018 — announced he was forming a super PAC, Act Now on Climate, to support Inslee for president. The group, which will disclose its donors later this year, quickly spent a quarter-million dollars on pro-Inslee digital advertisements.

The letter to Inslee, sent by the group End Citizens United, warns that super PACs founded to support a single candidate are “designed to serve as an arm of the campaign” and are frequently used to exploit gray areas in campaign finance law.

“Even worse than super PACs themselves are single-candidate super PACs,” the letter says. “Often, politicians exploit loopholes in the law to find ways to coordinate with them, including sending their top political operatives to run these super PACs.”