A campaign watchdog group has filed five complaints against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's campaign this year, accusing the GOP presidential primary candidate of illegally coordinating with a super PAC.
The Campaign Legal Centre is asking federal regulators to examine the Never Back Down super PAC to determine if its relationship with Mr DeSantis's campaign violates federal law.
Never Back Down has reportedly used its funds to pay for campaign operations in Iowa ahead of the state's caucus, and hosts events with Mr DeSantis. Those events may violate federal campaign laws, according to a report by Politico.
“When a super PAC like Never Back Down illegally coordinates its election spending with a candidate’s campaign, the super PAC effectively becomes an arm of the campaign,” Saurav Ghosh, the director of federal campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement.
The watchdog is concerned that the level of collaboration between the super PAC and Mr DeSantis's campaign is providing a "concerning" level of influence to Never Back Down's backers.
“That circumvents federal contribution limits and reporting requirements, and gives the super PAC’s special interest backers, including corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals, a concerning level of influence over elected officials and policymaking — undermining voters’ right to a meaningful and equitable role in the democratic process,” the director said.
Mr DeSantis' campaign denied the allegations, calling them "baseless" and evidence that the governor's opponents "will stoop to anything to stop him."
“The FEC has made clear they won’t take action based upon unverified rumors and innuendo, and that’s the false information this politically motivated complaint is based on,” Mr DeSantis's spokesperson, Andrew Romeo told Politico in an email. “The left has tried to stop DeSantis in the past and failed, and they will fail again this time.”
The super PAC's chair, Scott Wagner, issued a statement insisting the organisation was in full compliance with federal law.
"The Campaign Legal Center has a partisan agenda against Ron DeSantis and their allegations — based on anonymous sources in reporting — are completely false,” he said.
Mr DeSantis was asked about the complaint during a campaign stop in Iowa on Tuesday. He similarly dismissed the filings.
“I mean, give me a break. Trust me. I have no doubt. There’s a lot of things that happened that I wish I had control over,” he said, according to NBC News.
The Campaign Legal Centre has filed five complaints against Mr DeSantis's campaign this year. Four of the complaints were filed with the FEC, and a fifth was filed with the Florida Commission on Ethics. The fifth complaint focused on trips Mr DeSantis took while promoting his book. None of the complaints have reached a resolution at the time of this report.
