A conservative-leaning watchdog group is accusing the DCCC and a dozen of its candidates of using illegal advertising practices this fall, arguing in new complaints that the committee has used its ad strategy to direct extra money to a number of its campaigns.
The FEC complaints center on some of the growing number of Democratic TV ads linking Republican House candidates to Donald Trump. It’s a potentially devastating line of attack given Trump’s unpopularity, and the DCCC has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in coordination with some candidates to help them air the ads — well in excess of the normal $48,100 limit on coordinated expenditures in most House races.
Some candidates have legally exceeded the party-coordination limits in recent elections by making carefully worded “hybrid” ads, which justify the unlimited cost splitting by making generic references to the parties as well as mentioning local candidates. But the DCCC is sharing massive campaign costs on ads directly naming a presidential candidate as well as local House candidates, which have prompted a series of FEC complaints from the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust.