What Happens to Super PACs Who Lose Their Candidates
Although Scott Walker and Rick Perry suspended their campaigns for the GOP presidential nomination, the super PACs backing their runs still had access to the millions of dollars they raised and no legal requirements to end their operations.
Both say they will return the leftover money to donors, but future super PACS may not be so generous.
“There really isn’t a precedent set,” says Trevor Potter, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission and now an attorney at Caplin & Drysdale. “This is the first time we have had candidates withdraw and PACs still have a lot of money.”
At the end of June, super PACs and other groups backing Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, still had $19 million in hand, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Outside groups backing Perry, a former Texas governor, were sitting on $11.9 million.
The somewhat nebulous rules governing super PACs still apply: unlimited sums can be raised, and a politician cannot coordinate with the group on behalf of his own campaign, but he or she can otherwise be involved.
The safest path for a super PAC with a defunct candidate may be to return leftover funds to donors; if a super PAC went rogue, it could hurt the image of the politician it was established to support.
Austin Barbour, a senior adviser to the Perry-aligned Opportunity and Freedom PAC, says the super PAC doesn’t exist anymore, and that the money is being refunded. Unintimidated PAC, which supported Walker, is promising to wind itself down and refund supporters on a prorated basis, an aide says.
However, super PACS have been known to transform themselves in the past. Priorities USA, the super PAC that supported President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, still operates. During the 2014 midterm campaign, the group supported Democrats in Senate races, and it is now backing Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
