Candidates May Have a Loophole to Circumvent Limits on Spending

The Federal Election Commission on Thursday left undecided an election-year question that may leave a loophole for presidential candidates to circumvent campaign spending regulations through so-called delegate committees.

The commission deadlocked on whether such committees, organized to elect convention delegates for a presidential candidate, should be allowed to spend unlimited amounts on campaigning for the candidate.

A candidate is subject to federal spending and contribution limits. The 3-3 vote Thursday left unclear whether delegate committees authorized by a candidate are an official part of the candidate’s campaign and thus subject to the same limits.

But the commission did agree that if the national campaign and a delegate committee exchange mailing lists, the delegate committee would clearly be officially affiliated with the presidential campaign and thus subject to the limits.

The FEC studied the matter at the request of presidential candidate Jack Kemp, a Republican congressman from New York, who asked for clarification on what delegate committees in various states could do without having the spending count under the limits governing his campaign.

Campaign spokesman John Buckley said that the Kemp forces have budgeted money only as far as the March 8 “Super Tuesday” primaries and caucuses in most of the South. Kemp’s decision on staying in the race depends on doing well that day, Buckley said.

However, Kemp supporters in states with primaries and caucuses after that date want to organize delegate slates on their own, as a way to raise and spend money on the Kemp candidacy beyond what his official campaign could afford.