The Federal Election Commission has rejected an appeal by Sen. Mike Lee to turn his leadership PAC into a super PAC, which would allow the Utah Republican to raise unlimited contributions from anonymous sources.
According to OpenSecrets.org, the panel of three Democrats and three Republicans ruled last Thursday that Lee's PAC, the Constitutional Conservative Fund, is controlled by a federal politician and is therefore subject to the contribution limit of $5,000 per year from individual donors as outlined by campaign finance law.
Since the PAC was established under his control, the panel said, it is prohibited from accepting unlimited money to help fund other candidates or make independent expenditures on their behalf.
OpenSecrets reported that Lee, a tea party-aligned freshman, had sought to create a segregated account to help support other conservative candidates through advertising or other expenditures.
The Constitutional Conservatives Fund, the commissioners wrote in their opinion, “may neither receive unlimited contributions from individuals nor receive any contributions from corporations and labor organizations for the purpose of financing independent expenditures.”
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