Excerpt taken from article.
In recent years donors have become increasingly creative about circumventing the rules (including the McCain-Feingold law, which banned large "soft money" donations to political parties). By the late 1990s rich liberals like George Soros were funding a constellation of left-leaning "community organizations" and get-out-the-vote groups that engaged in thinly disguised campaigning for Bill Clinton and other Democratic candidates.
Conservatives returned fire with Swift Vets & POWs for Truth, which torpedoed John Kerry's candidacy in 2004 with a barrage of negative ads about his military service. Its $26 million war chest was funded to a large degree by rich Texans, including Perry ($4.5 million), corporate raider Harold Simmons ($2 million) and energy mogul Boone Pickens ($2 million). Ultimately it was fined $299,500 by the FEC for illegal campaigning and forced to disclose its donors.
The post-Citizens United rules, however, are "trivially simple," says Joe Birkenstock, a campaign finance expert with Caplin & Drysdale in Washington. "There's next to no paperwork." Hire a lawyer or two and some veteran campaign officials and you've got a Super PAC, which can directly advocate on behalf of a candidate or againstSanother one. In terms of influence, there's a no-lose quality to it. Bet right, and you're a kingmaker; bet wrong, and you're still a player to be reckoned with.
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