The fight over big money in the 2020 Democratic primary is reaching a new pitch on Friday with an open letter from advocates aimed at presidential candidates benefiting from a single-candidate Super PAC.
End Citizens United, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and a coalition of other groups are set to release the letter which will call on candidates to disavow and shut down any such PACs, The Daily Beast has learned. While candidates are legally not permitted to coordinate with Super PACs, the concern with single-candidate Super PACs stems from the fact that they are often run by close political or personal allies, effectively becoming a campaign booster.Thus far, the campaigns for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) have all said they don’t want support from Super PACs. And unlike Booker—who has said he too doesn’t want that support—there are no Super PACs backing their candidacies. But Warren, in explaining that she would forgo both Super PACS and high-dollar fundraisers during the primary, notably left open the possibility that her stance could change in the general.
“By then we’ll be up against a Republican machine that will be hell-bent on keeping the White House,” she wrote in a Medium post. “They will have PACs and Super PACs and too many special interest groups to count, and we will do what is necessary to match them financially.”
The view from some experienced Democratic operatives is that Warren’s caveat is driven by practicality; that shunning any Super PAC in the general election would be a fool’s errand, effectively leaving the Democratic nominee a significant money disadvantage.