Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis broke campaign finance law by communicating about TV spending decisions with a big-money super PAC supporting his Republican bid for the White House, a nonpartisan government watchdog group alleged in a complaint filed Monday.
The Campaign Legal Center cited recent reporting by The Associated Press and others in the complaint, which was filed with the Federal Election Commission. It alleges that the level of coordination and communication between DeSantis’ campaign and Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting him, crossed a legal line set when the Supreme Court first opened the door more than a decade ago to unlimited fundraising and spending by such groups.
“When a super PAC like Never Back Down illegally coordinates its election spending with a candidate’s campaign, the super PAC effectively becomes an arm of the campaign,” said Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center. “This circumvents federal contribution limits and reporting requirements and gives the super PAC’s special interest backers, including corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals, a troubling level of influence over elected officials and policymaking.”
In a statement, DeSantis spokesman Andrew Romeo said the complaint was “baseless,” based on “unverified rumors and innuendo,” and “just another example of how the left is afraid of Ron DeSantis and will stoop to anything to stop him.”
The complaint comes amid widespread turmoil in DeSantis’s political operation, as he struggles to overcome low poll numbers ahead of next month’s Iowa caucuses. The turmoil has extended to an unusual and very public airing of grievances, as a steady stream of top-level strategists have departed Never Back Down.
Last week, the reported that several people familiar with DeSantis’ political network said he and his wife had expressed concerns about the messaging of Never Back Down, the largest super PAC supporting the governor’s campaign.
The governor and his wife, Casey, who is widely considered to be his top political adviser, were particularly frustrated after the group took down a television ad last month that criticised leading Republican rival Nikki Haley for allowing a Chinese manufacturer into South Carolina when she was governor.
DeSantis’ team shared those messaging concerns with members of Never Back Down’s board, which includes Florida-based members with close ties to the governor, according to several people briefed on the discussions. Some of the board members then relayed the DeSantis team’s wishes to the super PAC staff responsible for executing the strategy, the people said.
The DeSantis campaign has previously strongly denied that the governor sought to influence the network of outside groups supporting him, citing federal laws prohibiting coordination.
Regardless, it’s unlikely that DeSantis will face any immediate consequences.
The FEC often takes years to resolve complaints. And the agency’s own board often deadlocks on campaign finance enforcement issues. Whenever the FEC deadlocks on an enforcement decision, it effectively creates a new precedent that sanctions the activity that was the subject of the complaint.