Complaint alleges Dean Phillips' presidential campaign illegally coordinated with super PAC

Democratic U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips has been hit with a federal campaign finance complaint that accuses his presidential campaign of illegally coordinating with a super PAC.

The Campaign for Accountability, a progressive watchdog, filed a complaint Tuesday alleging that Phillips' campaign illegally coordinated with a supporting super PAC called Pass the Torch, which was launched by former Phillips campaign adviser Steve Schmidt.

Phillips, a third-term Minnesota congressman, launched his intraparty challenge against President Joe Biden in late October.

"Steve Schmidt and Dean Phillips engaged in multiple substantial discussions about the plans, projects, activities and needs of [the campaign] in the two weeks leading up to its launch," the complaint says. "Less than two weeks later, Schmidt decamped to create Pass the Torch USA Inc., a Super PAC supporting the Phillips campaign. Very shortly thereafter, Pass the Torch began running ads echoing the Phillips campaign's message that 'It's time to pass the torch to a new generation of American leaders' — the very message that Schmidt apparently helped create for the Phillips campaign."

Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, said in a statement Wednesday that "candidates and their committees cannot coordinate strategy with super PACs. When the architect of the Phillips campaign suddenly moves over to lead a super PAC supporting Phillips' candidacy the moment the ink on the blueprint is dry, the coordination is clear."

The Phillips campaign responded in a statement Thursday, calling the complaint "baseless" and saying it does not cite a "single specific example of coordination."

"All it takes is one look at our paid TV ads to see how different the strategies of these two entities are," the campaign's statement said. "Regardless, we can say without question that the campaign has at all times complied with the law and has not engaged in any coordination with Pass the Torch, Steve Schmidt, or any other party."

Schmidt, in a brief statement, called the campaign finance complaint "meritless and frivolous."

Brett Kappel, a Washington-based attorney and national expert on campaign finance law, said the close timing of Schmidt's departure from Phillips' campaign and his formation of the super PAC is "unusual."

The Federal Election Commission's coordination rules state that "if you worked on a campaign and then you go to work for an organization that's running ads supporting that candidate, there has to be a 120-day cooling-off period," Kappel said.

"That way … whatever inside information they had about the campaign's plans, projects, needs or activities will be stale," he said. "It prevents people using inside knowledge they gained while they were on the campaign to inform the communications put out by the super PAC."

But that didn't happen with Schmidt, Kappel said.

"The facts are pretty compelling, and they may be so compelling that the commissioners feel like they have no choice but to conduct an investigation," he said.