A complaint has been filed against Rep. Dean Phillips alleging that his campaign has been illegally coordinating with a super PAC.
The Campaign Legal Center provided details about their complaint against Phillips to PoliticusUSA:
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that the presidential campaign of Dean Phillips and the super PAC “We Deserve Better” (Better PAC) engaged in an illegal coordination scheme that violated federal campaign finance laws.
The complaint details how two former senior advisors of the Phillips presidential campaign used nonpublic information and strategic insights to inform Better PAC’s messaging. Indeed, even the super PAC’s name appears to have been message-tested by the campaign. The former campaign advisors, Matt and Scott Krisiloff, organized Better PAC just ten days after leaving the campaign, and the super PAC has reportedly raised over $4 million from wealthy special interests. Better PAC has reported spending over $3.3 million supporting Phillips to date.
The Phillips campaign focused its efforts on New Hampshire, where President Biden wasn’t on the ballot due to New Hampshire Democrats violating the DNC calendar by moving up their primary without permission. President Biden was not on the ballot and did not campaign in the state, but he still defeated Phillips 64%-20%. Biden’s margin of victory was larger than Trump’s over Nikki Haley in the Republican primary.
Dean Phillips lost by 44 points to Joe Biden in a state where the President wasn’t on the ballot, and the Phillips campaign is accused of violating campaign finance laws.
Primary opposition is good for candidates and good for democracy, but Dean Phillips has shown that Democrats aren’t interested in a primary challenge to Biden.
Even when Phillips allegedly cheated against an opponent who wasn’t campaigning, he still couldn’t win.
A Special Message From PoliticusUSA
If you are in a position to donate purely to help us keep the doors open on PoliticusUSA during what is a critical election year, please do so here.
We have been honored to be able to put your interests first for 14 years as we only answer to our readers and we will not compromise on that fundamental, core PoliticusUSA value.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
