Evan Vitale Consulting: Bush campaign and super PAC using the same consulting firm for the same services

Monday, October 19, 2015

Bush campaign and super PAC using the same consulting firm for the same services – AMERICAblog (blog)

Latest post from Evan Vitale Consulting -

Remember that time Jeb Bush confused his super PAC’s advertising for his campaign’s? Notice how not-incorrect it was for me to call it “his super PAC”?

Well, that may have something to do with the fact that the two political organizations are using the same consulting firm for “political strategy consulting,” according to FEC filings. From ThinkProgress:

Jeb Bush, via Gage Skidmore / Flickr

Buried in the most recent round of FEC filings is evidence Bush’s Right to Rise super PAC paid the firm Wisecup Consulting LLC at least $16,000 this April and May for “political strategy consulting,” while the campaign paid the same firm about $60,000 for the exact same service — despite the two entities being legally barred from any coordination. Additionally, Wisecup Consulting’s founder and president Trent Wisecup, is serving as the campaign’s director of strategy, and has helped Bush prepare for debates and write his new e-book, among other contributions. Such an arrangement would be legal only if a strict, documented firewall is in place to prevent information sharing, but the Jeb Bush campaign did not responded to ThinkProgress’ inquiries as to whether such protections are in place.

While Campaign Legal Center general counsel Larry Noble described the links to Wiseup as “strong evidence of coordination,” it’s unclear if such a link is in fact illegal coordination and, even if it is, it’s very clear that the Federal Elections Commission lacks both the will and the ability to effectively prosecute said coordination. As Noble continued:

“We have filed several complaints with the FEC, and we haven’t seen anything happen,” he told ThinkProgress. “Each day that goes on, the campaigns get bolder and bolder ignoring the law. We basically have a presidential election that is going completely unregulated. It’s an arms race, and until the FEC steps in and says it’s illegal, it’s not going to stop.”

This isn’t the first time Bush’s campaign and super PAC have paid the same company for the same services. The two both work with Digital Core Campaign, a data firm run by former Republican National Committee CTO Andy Barkett, in what certainly looks like a way for the campaign and super PAC to launder data before they share it. And while having a super PAC sell data to a third party with the intention of having that data re-sold to the campaign violates the spirit of what few campaign finance laws are still on the books, it likely adheres to their letters.

And lest you think that Bush is alone in this sort of winking and nodding at campaign finance laws, Donald “Can’t Be Bought” Trump has the same sort of campaign-vendor-super PAC connections. As the Washington Post reported yesterday, Trump appeared at events for the Make America Great Again PAC before he officially announced his candidacy, and the two groups share consultants and vendors. His campaign manager, Cory Lewandowski, threatened to sue the Post for publishing the abundantly clear connections between Trump’s campaign and the Make America Great Again PAC.

Tags: 2016, campaign finance, Elections, Jeb Bush, Super Pac

Source