Pence acquires taxpayer money for his inactive presidential campaign at the White House.
The Federal Election Commission has given the green light for an initial payment of $100,000 to Mike Pence's campaign, which recorded upwards of $1.3 million in debt at the end of March. The funds can be used to clear those debts and wrap up any remaining campaign functions. A spokesperson for Pence failed to respond to a request for comment from CNN on Thursday.
Pence's application for public money, made public through FEC documents earlier this week, illuminated the financial woes his campaign encountered as he attempted to launch a primary challenge against his ex-boss, Trump. The campaign managed to raise approximately $5.3 million in total.
The majority of significant presidential candidates ceased pursuing these public funds long ago, as they would have needed to observe the program's stringent spending restrictions instead.
The last presidential candidates to secure these funds, according to FEC data, were Martin O'Malley (Democrat) and Jill Stein (Green Party) in 2016.
Covering Up Personal Information
On Thursday, the FEC decided to draft rules that might conceal some donor details from the public should they be adopted. However, it's unlikely any decision will be made before the general election this year, given the time-consuming nature of rule-making.
The FEC rejected a suggestion from Commissioner Allen Dickerson, a Republican appointee, to implement a streamlined process for individual requests to shield individual political backers' details if they claim exposure could lead to harassment or violence. Some election monitoring organizations opposed Dickerson's proposition.
By law, all federal campaigns and political action committees (PACs) are required to unveil the identities of donors who contribute over $200. Additionally, fundraising platforms like WinRed and ActBlue are expected to disclose such information for all contributors, regardless of donation amounts.
Dickerson contended that disclosure laws, dating back to the FEC's inception in the 1970s when campaign finance records were manual and stored at the commission offices, are outdated since that information can now be easily accessed online. He stressed that "Now, that information is available to anyone, instantly and forever, on the internet."
The courts have historically allowed exemptions to these disclosure rules. For instance, the Supreme Court protected the NAACP from local and state demands to disclose its members' identities in the Jim Crow era. Furthermore, the FEC has, on a case-by-case basis, redacted some personal information from public filing submitted when requested.
Although the panel declined Dickerson's proposal to mandate a new procedure to withhold donor details, certain commissioners hinted at being receptive to discussing how transparency and personal privacy can be balanced.
Democratic Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum, appointed by President Biden, urged Congress to reconsider if the street addresses and street names of donors should be disclosed publicly.
Lindenbaum imagined a traumatic scenario where a victim of domestic abuse seeks refuge at a family member's home "only for their abuser to locate them by searching their parents' or other family members' names on the commission's website."
Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center, expressed that his organization would carefully analyze any changes to disclosure requirements, expressing concern that "a net loss of information about who's spending on elections" could result from new rules.
Read also:
- Year of climate records: extreme is the new normal
- Precautionary arrests show Islamist terror threat
- UN vote urges Israel to ceasefire
- SPD rules out budget resolution before the end of the year
In regards to Mike Pence's financial struggles, his application for taxpayer funds to settle campaign debts and wrap up remaining functions was recently approved by the Federal Election Commission. If the proposed rules by the FEC are adopted, some donor details might be concealed from the public, making it harder to trace donations to specific political candidates.
Source: edition.cnn.com
