Op-Ed: Political spending in the 2016 presidential race

Fred Wertheimer, founder of the nonprofit Democracy 21, predicts that whoever wins the 2016 presidential race will do so with the help of $500 million in unlimited spending from donors and advocacy groups.

Last week, he wrote in The Huffington Post:

"Presidential candidates are pretending they are not controlling the Super PACs supporting them, either directly or indirectly.

They are pretending they are not soliciting huge, unlimited contributions to support their campaigns — and thereby eviscerating the candidate contribution limits of $2,700 per donor.

They are pretending they are not tied to and misusing individual-candidate nonprofit groups to support their campaigns.

These nonprofits in turn are pretending they are 'social welfare' organizations and not political groups supporting presidential candidates."

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