Chair of FEC commissioner to speak at KU Law School Jan. 26
LAWRENCE – The former chair of the Federal Election Commission will speak at the University of Kansas School of Law about “Campaign Finance Challenges in the Age of the Super PAC.”
Commissioner Cynthia Bauerly will discuss recent court challenges and pending issues related to federal campaign finance laws at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP Lecture Hall in 104 Green Hall. The talk is free and open to the public.
Bauerly also will discuss political advertising by super PACs, as well as Citizens United v. FEC, the controversial 2010 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down, on First Amendment grounds, a restriction on corporate expenditures for political advertising.
Super PACs have made news in recent weeks for financing attack ads during the Republican presidential primaries while taking advantage of loopholes in federal regulations that will allow them to keep their donors secret until late on the night of Jan. 31. That means voters won’t find out who’s paying for most primary campaign ads until voting ends in states expected to largely determine the Republican nominee – Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida.
Bauerly has said in the media that disclosure rules may need to be revised in the face of increasing influence by super PACs.
“More can be done to ensure that voters have the information they are entitled to in making decisions about federal elections,” she said.
Before being appointed to the FEC in 2008, Bauerly served as legislative director for Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York. She previously had been counsel on the Senate Judiciary and Rules committees.
Bauerly’s visit is sponsored by the Judge Hugh Means Inn of Court, with assistance from the Barber Emerson law firm, and by the KU School of Law, through its Media, Law and Technology Program.