Bullet Point Election News: Why Obama Complaint Against American Leadership Project Will Go Nowhere

Thursday, May 1, 2008

The American Leadership Project ("ALP") is a 527 organization as designated by the IRS that was formed February 15, 2008.
According to IRS filings the ALP's primary contact is Roger Salazar and it raised $1,161,485 from 17 donors from February 15, 2008 to March 31, 2008.
On Wednesday, Barack Obama's campaign attorney, Robert Bauer, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing the ALP of violating campaign finance laws by running ads against Obama.
According to the AP "the group is spending $920,000 for an ad in Indiana questioning Obama's economic policies.The group is largely financed by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and is run by Democratic operatives, many of them based in California and who have past connections to Clinton or her husband."
In 2007, the Supreme Court made a decision that "opened the door" for organizations to air issue ads that mention political candidates, as long as they did not explicitly call for their election or defeat.
The FEC does not currently have a quorum so they cannot act on any investigation or regulatory matter.
Even if they could the AP reports that "FEC investigations typically take more than a year to resolve."
This is why Obama's complaint against the ALP will go nowhere before the election is over.

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