Can candidates have super PACs?
Officially no. But it's easy to understand why it sometimes can seem as though they do. Although a candidate cannot coordinate expenditures with a super PAC (tell the PAC where an ad might be placed, whether the ad should be positive or negative, or what voters canvassers should contact), there's no law that says a candidate can't have connections with a the entities backing his or her election. Many super PACs — such as the one supporting Romney, the pro-Newt Gingrich Winning Our Future, and Priorities USA, which backs President Obama — are run by former top aides of the candidates. And candidates can headline fundraisers for the super PACs that are supporting them (as Romney has) so long as they don't ask for donations beyond the legal limits permitted for their own campaign committees. Donors are free to write larger checks and super PAC staffers are free to ask for them, but as long as the candidate abides by federal campaign limits or doesn’t actually ask for funds. it’s all kosher. Bottom line: There's a legal prohibition against candidates' coordinating with super PACs but the FEC has been exceedingly lenient in defining what constitutions coordination, as University of California law professor Rick Hasen pithily outlines in his Election Law Blog.
What makes a super PAC super?
Traditional political action committees are bound by a $5,000 annual limit on the size of contributions they can accept from individuals and are prohibited from accepting contributions from corporations and labor unions. A super PAC is freed from these restrictions under two conditions: The PAC must neither 1) give money directly to a candidate or other political committees that give directly to candidates, nor 2) coordinate how it spends its money with a federal candidate. As long as those two conditions are met, a super PAC may accept donations directly from corporate or union treasuries and in amounts that are limited only by the size of donors' bank accounts. Movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg wrote a $2 million check to the super PAC backing President Obama's reelection; casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife have reportedly underwritten a super PAC backing Newt Gingrich to the tune of $10 million. Neither of these donations could have been legally given to a traditional PAC.
What's so new about the corporate and union activity? Haven't big labor and big business been active in political campaigns for years?
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United made it easier for corporations and unions to use their treasuries to directly influence elections. Some restrictions remain: if they want to give directly to candidates, they still have to establish political action committees and raise funds for them. But there are limits on how much traditional political action committees can accept in contributions and from whom: Currently, the cap on individual contributions is $5,000 a year. Donors to traditional union and corporate PACS must work for or own shares in those corporations or belong to those unions. They must be identified and the amounts of their donations made public. By contrast, super PACs can accept money in unlimited amounts from unions, corporations and unaffiliated individuals as well as from non-profit organizations that have been incorporated under innocuous-sounding names and that do not have to report the sources of their funding. That means individuals and entities with whom candidates might not wish to be publicly associated can support their campaigns anonymously.
What can super PACs do with their money?
Anything except contribute directly to, or coordinate expenditures with, candidates and candidate committees. They can pay for any typical political expenditure, and then some. Super PACs can and do pay for television ads, phone banks, canvassers and bumper stickers. In other words, they can act as a shadow campaign.
https://sunlightfoundation.com/2012/01/31/nine-things-you-need-know-about-super-pacs/
Congratulations to our presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden!
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