KEITH OLBERMANN: For more now on the super PAC wars in this GOP primary race — an interesting twist to them — I'm joined now by Ken Vogel, chief investigative reporter with Politico. Good evening, Ken.
KEN VOGEL: Hey, great to be with you, Keith.
OLBERMANN: And same here. You reported today Santorum and Gingrich, or his surrogate, are planning to speak at fundraising events for their super PACS. As a layman, something strikes me illegal about this. How is this working? I thought they couldn’t coordinate with the super PACS.
VOGEL: Well, what they say and what their lawyers say is that the coordination prohibitions are intended only to prohibit them from coordinating on spending strategy, not fundraising strategy. But when you get down to, sort of, brass tacks here, the sole purpose of these organizations — these super PACS — is spending money to support these candidates.
So, even if they're just helping with the fundraising, they are almost, by definition, helping with the spending as well. The formal name of these super PACS are Independent Expenditure-Only Political Action Committees. And so, by definition, they are intended to help these candidates with their campaign strategy.
And then, beyond that, when you look at the individual donors who have been most prominent in helping to support these super PACS — folks like Sheldon Adelson, who has supported Newt Gingrich's super PAC, and Foster Friess, who has supported Rick Santorum's super PAC — those donors have also been active in helping the campaign.
Sheldon Adelson has sat in on a meeting of Newt Gingrich's national finance committee in a Las Vegas hotel that Sheldon Adelson owns just this month.
Foster Friess, I talked to him on the phone the other day, he was telling me about internal Rick Santorum fundraising figures. He was telling me about a conversation that he and Rick Santorum had with Newt Gingrich over a particular ad. So, if that is not coordination, I don’t know what is.
OLBERMANN: Well, now we know that the Election Commission is an honorary organization that I don’t know the last time they did something of substance within six years of an election question. But — but, certainly, the legality of this must come under somebody's radar.
VOGEL: Well, the Federal Election Commission is one of the agencies that is tasked with policing this and enforcing these laws, as is the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice. None of them have shown any inclination to really look into this, either this election cycle or, really, historically.
The last time we saw any action on this front was in 2004, after George Soros, Peter Lewis and other Democratic donors poured $200 million to outside spending groups that were intended to help John Kerry against George Bush, obviously unsuccessfully. And then, in that same election, when Swift Vote Veterans for Truth — some of these organizations that are being funded by the same folks who are funding Mitt Romney's super PAC and Karl Rove's "American Crossroads" — they were hit with big fines by the Federal Election Commission. But guess when those fines came down? 2007. So, too late, and if there's any action on this, it will probably be in 2015.
OLBERMANN: The Washington Post reported that — if you add up Romney's spending to the spending by his super PAC — the combined figure gives Romney a 29-to-1 ad-buy advantage this week alone. Santorum's super PAC is apparently just watching. Is that suggestive of Santorum possibly going under, purely because of the super PAC?
VOGEL: Well, he certainly needs help and the super PAC is — as we reported today — for the first time, getting sort of the de facto blessing of the campaign and of Rick Santorum, who's going to speak at this super PAC fundraiser. And, it should be noted, that the super PAC fundraiser is — at the same time, dare I say, coordinated — with a fundraiser for Santorum's own committee.
So, they recognize that this is a weakness, and they're going to Texas where there is big conservative money, big evangelical money, which is something that Rick Santorum really needs at this point — both in his campaign and in his super PAC — in order to be able to continue to compete, because we see that the places in which Rick Santorum has done best — including Iowa, as well as his sweep in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado — he did have spending by the super PAC. And the places where he has done poorly is where the super PAC has not competed.
So, I don’t think you can understate the importance of the super PAC to Rick Santorum's effort. However, he also does seem to have this grassroots momentum that Mitt Romney is lacking, despite all his spending.
OLBERMANN: Plus, the mistakes in the Romney ads that he's able to outspend on 29-to-1.
Ken Vogel, Politico. Always a pleasure. Thank you, sir.
VOGEL: It's my pleasure, Keith.
