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It’s no secret that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is running for president.
He’s barnstormed through Iowa, met with deep-pocketed donors on the east coast, hired campaign staff in Iowa and New Hampshire, and is the poster boy for Our American Revival (OAR), generally seen as the fundraising committee that will support him as a federal candidate.
There’s just one catch.
Despite acting and talking like he’s running for higher office, Walker isn’t a candidate, officially, and Our American Revival isn’t his campaign committee.
Nor is it an exploratory committee, a leadership committee, a political action committee (PACs) or Super PAC, organizations that traditionally support a presidential candidate.
Rather, Walker’s Our American Revival is a 527 organization can take in unlimited funds from individuals, PACs and corporations and doesn’t have to register with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Walker says that Our American Revival is meant to advocate for certain ideas, not a specific candidate—even though Walker is featured prominently on OAR’s website and in its first promotional video.
But not everyone is buying what Walker is selling.
“Obviously he’s exploring his presidential run and yet he’s not abiding by the laws required when you’re setting up an exploratory committee,” said Matt Rothschild, executive director of the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. “This is another example of Scott Walker playing fast and loose with the laws to give himself a political advantage.”
Complaint Filed Over Big Donations
Walker’s quest for higher office shines a spotlight on federal political committees that support candidates directly or independently.
Traditionally, candidates who are considering running for president set up exploratory committees while they “test the waters” of their candidacy. According to Federal Election Commission rules, during this phase candidates can travel, conduct polls and raise money. The catch is that if the candidate’s committee raises or spends more than $5,000 and goes beyond “testing the waters” activity, the candidate must file a statement of candidacy and statement of organization with the FEC and begin filing campaign reports. Their donors must adhere to campaign finance limits as well, currently $2,700 per candidate for an individual and $5,000 for a PAC. Corporate donations are prohibited.
But Walker, despite acting like a candidate and spending large chunks of his time out of state, hasn’t set up an exploratory committee. Instead, Our American Revival is a 527 committee, which can take in unlimited donations from individuals, corporations and PACs.
“He’s playing a game now so he can collect as much money as possible before formally declaring his candidacy,” Rothschild said.
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Walker’s already raking in donations. Not much has been made public, but the Washington Post reported that he accepted checks of $25,000 and $100,000 from out-of-state donors.
Those big checks violate FEC rules, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Elections Commission by the American Democracy Legal Fund (ADLF). Its complaint argues that Walker is a candidate, even if he hasn’t declared it, and that OAR must abide by federal campaign finance rules.
“It’s pretty clear to us that he’s using this organization to run for president,” Ben Ray, a spokesman for ADLF, told the Shepherd. “By doing so he’s taking in campaign contributions larger than the allowed limits and he is circumventing the law.”
Ray said ADLF hasn’t received a response from the FEC.
Walker isn’t the first candidate to skip the exploratory phase and set up a 527 committee. In the 2008 campaign, GOP hopefuls Rand Paul and Fred Thompson set up 527s and state-based organizations. In the 2012 cycle, Newt Gingrich did as well.
Unlimited Sums for the Asking
527s have advantages in addition to being able to accept unlimited funds, argued Marquette University Assistant Professor Julia Azari in a Feb. 18 New York Times piece. Walker’s OAR allows him to raise money outside of traditional party structures and from just a few deep-pocketed donors who want to back Walker in the primaries.
Walker, of course, already has experience raising unlimited funds from right-wing billionaires. During an early phase of his recall campaign, he was exempt from campaign finance limits and he made the most of it, scooping up eye-popping sums from conservatives across the country and raising $37 million overall, a record for Wisconsin.
The out-of-state donations paid handsomely. According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Walker collected $500,000 from Texas-based Bob Perry of Perry Homes, $260,000 from Missouri builder David Humphreys, and $250,000 each from gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson, Humphreys’ sister Sarah Atkins, school voucher backer Richard DeVos and Missouri contractor Stanley Herzog.
Walker went back to his recall donors last week in New York, even as he wasn’t officially campaigning or raising funds. He attended events organized by Roger Hertog, former chair of the Koch- and Bradley Foundation-backed Manhattan Institute and a $100,000 recall donor, and by billionaire grocer John Catsimatidis, who donated $12,500 to Walker in his recent campaigns. Catsimatidis’ event, held at the exclusive 21 Club and featuring a slew of free marketeers, is the occasion at which Giuliani accused President Barack Obama of not loving America, which Walker has yet to denounce.
Shades of John Doe Allegations
Our American Revival and Walker claim that it cannot expressly advocate for Walker. That said, Walker is the only candidate featured positively on its website and in its first web video, which features snippets of Walker’s victory speech from November.
OAR didn’t respond to the Shepherd’s request to comment for this article.
But a report filed last week by Paul S. Ryan for the Washington, D.C.-based The Campaign Legal Center argues that 527s like OAR “must have the primary purpose of influencing candidate elections—not issue advocacy.”
This seems to be another case of Walker blurring the lines between his campaign and allegedly independent organizations. Before it was halted by the courts, John Doe 2 was looking into whether the Walker gubernatorial campaign violated Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws during the 2011-2012 recalls.
The John Doe prosecutors allege that Walker and his top campaign aides illegally coordinated fundraising, messaging and spending with sympathetic independent organizations, primarily the Wisconsin Club for Growth, that can accept undisclosed, unlimited and corporate donations. The prosecutors went so far as to call their coordination a “criminal scheme” intended to circumvent state campaign finance laws.
Walker admitted that he raised funds for the Club but that his actions were perfectly legal since the Club wasn’t expressly advocating for his candidacy.
That theory will be tested before the state Supreme Court this year. Four of the seven justices have benefited from Club for Growth spending in their own campaigns, but they haven’t recused themselves from the case.
Now, it seems, Walker is blurring the lines between his burgeoning presidential campaign and an allegedly independent group.
“Our American Revival is a charade to get around the legal requirements,” Rothschild said. “It’s just another Walker dodge.”
