The Federal Election Commission was on the verge of granting a prominent Washington Tea Party group an exemption from federal reporting and disclosure requirements not only for donors, but also for expenditures. If the Tea Party got its way, it would have been allowed to legally operate under cover of complete darkness and function as a conduit for billionaires’ money to buy the midterm elections for right-wing conservatives in 2014.
At the beginning of the hearing, mention was made of the comment submitted on behalf of over 5,000 CREDO members. On Thursday, November 21, the FEC denied the Tea Party’s request by a 3-2 vote, which meant the Tea Party Leadership Fund would have to continue making disclosures according to the rules everyone else has to follow.