Top GOP Lawyer James Bopp Poised to Test Campaign Finance Rules with New Super PAC

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/05/top-gop-lawyer-james-bopp-poised.html

One of the rules of operating a super PAC is that the group must be independent: It's spending cannot be done in coordination with any candidate or political party.

But a new super PAC, launched last week by GOP super lawyer James Bopp, appears to be challenging the limits of that prohibition. Moreover, Bopp's group, called the Republican Super PAC, may be designed to allow the Republican National Committee to avoid some of the strict contribution rules that govern it.

Bopp is a member of the RNC, who has made a career out of challenging campaign finance regulations, including representing the conservative organization Citizens United for a portion of the group's recent legal battles against the Federal Election Commission.

"It appears that all this is is an attempt to create the ability for the national party to raise and spend 'soft money' by using the structure of a super PAC to provide cover," Fred Wertheimer, the founder and president of Democracy 21, a nonprofit organization that supports campaign finance regulations, told OpenSecrets Blog. "On its face, it appears to be an attempt to circumvent and evade the requirements that parties use 'hard money.'"
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