A political action committee (PAC) called End Citizens United is pointing the federal entity known as the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to campaign spending aligned with far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) in a new complaint seeking an investigation and possible penalties.
In short, End Citizens United, whose moniker refers to a U.S. Supreme Court case where the outcome opened legal opportunities for substantial spending on elections, is alleging there was possible illegal coordination between a PAC supporting Boebert and her main campaign before the 2022 elections.
In general, there are strict rules around the support outside organizations like a PAC can provide to political candidates, although these regulations aren’t always either followed or enforced. We the People Leadership PAC, which is affiliated with Boebert but outside her campaign, evidently spent $53,760 at Telephone Town Hall Meeting, Inc for messaging services, an expense dated November 18 of last year and marking, in its size, an obviously significant effort of some kind. On the same day as an earlier payment from the same PAC to the firm, Boebert’s campaign also dated a payment of thousands of dollars, suggesting possible coordination.
PACs of the variety of Boebert’s We the People are permitted to coordinate some expenses with a campaign, but in that realm of activity they can only spend $5,000 per candidate in each election. Apparently, the PAC didn’t even report any independent expenditures in support of a candidate, though — so was somebody trying to leave this spending under the metaphorical table? All of these details hinge, of course, on allegations rather than anything proven and were highlighted by Colorado Newsline.
Boebert is currently facing Adam Frisch in the slowly materializing race for her seat in 2024. Frisch, a Democrat, also ran against Boebert in 2022, losing by a startlingly thin margin of just hundreds of votes out of hundreds of thousands cast in the district. Frisch has been very direct in going after Boebert in early campaign messages for their latest face-off. Also in news about challengers for those with a political allegiance like Boebert’s, Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) has announced a Democratic primary campaign in the race for the Senate seat currently held by Republican Ted Cruz, which will be on the ballot next year. Allred reported he raised over $2 million within a day and a half of announcing his campaign — more than Cruz’s campaign reported raising across the entire first three months of this calendar year.
