Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign is spending heavily, amassing steep debts and resorting to layoffs as it becomes almost singularly focused on the costly effort of placing his name on state ballots.
The troubles, laid bare in federal filings and interviews with nine people with knowledge of the campaign’s activities, have left little money for events and other traditional campaign priorities, leading to a growing sense of alarm among some staff members and longtime supporters. Fund-raising has slowed, and the campaign has become reliant on Mr. Kennedy’s wealthy running mate, Nicole Shanahan, who last month put $2.5 million more into their campaign.
As the campaign struggles, allies of Mr. Kennedy have been quietly raising money into a new organization to support legal challenges to ballot access, according to records and interviews, effectively creating a separate financing operation.
‘The ballot litigation group — called the Ballot Freedom Fund and set up in May in Delaware by a lawyer with ties to Mr. Kennedy’s campaign — could ease the financial pressure on the campaign, which otherwise would have to foot legal bills itself. The group, a tax-exempt political organization, can raise unlimited amounts of money but is not allowed to coordinate with the campaign….’The ballot litigation group — called the Ballot Freedom Fund and set up in May in Delaware by a lawyer with ties to Mr. Kennedy’s campaign — could ease the financial pressure on the campaign, which otherwise would have to foot legal bills itself. The group, a tax-exempt political organization, can raise unlimited amounts of money but is not allowed to coordinate with the campaign….’The creation of the Ballot Freedom Fund is the latest example of a growing trend of federal campaigns offloading expenses to outside organizations — groups that can take checks of unlimited size but are legally barred from direct coordination with a campaign.