Did GOP Violate Campaign Finance Laws?

The Twitter accounts were hidden in plain sight. The profiles were publicly available but meaningless without knowledge of how to find them and decode the information, according to a source with knowledge of the activities.

Explaining how it went down, CNN adds,

A typical tweet read: “CA-40/43-44/49-44/44-50/36-44/49-10/16/14-52–>49/476-10s.” The source said posts like that — which would look like gibberish to most people — represented polling data for various House races.

According to CNN’s report, the fake accounts were deleted “minutes” after they contacted the NRCC with questions.

Picking up the story, The Verge ads,

The definition of “coordinated” in campaign spending sits on murky legal territory. In this case, since the tweets were posted publicly, albeit quietly, it’s unclear whether any rules were violated. The GOP accused Democrats of skirting campaign laws when tweets posted by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s accounts later showed up in ads funded by outside groups.

Because the laws are such that super PACs and non-profits have no limit on contributions so long as there is no coordinated effort directly with a campign itself, it is easy for those running or for ballot measures to see huge spikes in funding. The difference here is there appears to be an obvious coordination with particular campaigns which would make the acts illegal under campaign finance laws.