According to the Center for Responsive politics, a Political Action Committee (PAC) is a “a popular term for a political committee organized for the purpose of raising and spending money to elect and defeat candidates.” There are genuine PACs as well as there are “scam PACs”. The latter form of PAC refers to PACs that funnel money to their own operatives while investing little on actual political action. The Federal Election Commission, America’s election watchdog, wants to curb this activity and is exploring measure to expose these “scam PACs”. This article by Karl Evers-Hillstrom is published by the Center for Responsive Politics. Here is an excerpt:

The Federal Election Commission is exploring ways to tackle so-called “scam PACs,” committees that route donors’ cash to their own operatives while spending relatively little on actual political activity. 

The commission is considering adding new data categories to the FEC website showing what percentage of a committee’s spending goes to supporting candidates and the proportion of spending going to each vendor. Those measures are meant to educate donors on how much political activity a given PAC really engages in, and whether their money is being funneled to one or a few political firms.

Scam PACs are increasingly popular amid historically expensive elections. Telemarketers behind fraudulent charities have turned to political groups, which face far less oversight, and raked in millions in the process. Dozens of PACs that use Donald Trump’s name and campaign slogans to raise cash, but ultimately pocket donations for themselves, have emerged over the last four years. One of these pro-Trump PAC operators was charged with federal wire fraud earlier this month, but others continue to raise money.

Read the full article here. Also, visit the main Democracy Chronicles section on American Democracy, our section on Money Politics, or our articles on Political Lobbying.