Where Elon Musk and his super PAC’s “sweepstakes” fit into campaign finance rules
Philadelphia’s district attorney sued billionaire Elon Musk earlier this week over his controversial $1 million-a-day giveaway to registered voters, alleging that it is an “unlawful lottery.” Other legal experts say maybe, maybe not.
Musk is operating the sweepstakes, which includes a special extra for people in swing state Pennsylvania of $100 to all registered voters who sign a petition and share their personal data. Musk is conducting this through his pro-Donald Trump political action committee, called America PAC. The Tesla CEO is more than a big donor; some say Musk is becoming a quasi-campaign manager.
To discuss all of this, “Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio was joined by Sarah Bryner. She’s the research director at OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
David Brancaccio: We’ve talked about the well-heeled giving to political action committees, PACs, as a way of having a strong say in election outcomes, but this sweepstakes of sorts that the Tesla CEO Elon Musk is running — that is quite an innovation. I don’t know if we’ve seen that before. Have you?
Sarah Bryner: I have not, and it has those of us in the sort of good government/democracy space scratching our heads.
Brancaccio: Some legal experts too. It might be legal, it might not be legal. I guess we’ll see. But we also know that Elon Musk is giving actual dollars through the usual conduits toward politicians.
Sarah Bryner: Usual, in the sense of, for the last 15 years they’ve been usual. But this is, to some degree, ahistoric to have a person be able to give millions of dollars to a super PAC that supports a candidate.
Brancaccio: Now with the sweepstakes, it isn’t to register to vote. It’s only open to registered voters, and Elon Musk says it’s just about getting signatures on a petition to support the Second Amendment and another amendment.
Sarah Bryner: Yes, and we haven’t seen the disclosures yet, because these started after the most recent period. I believe we’re expecting to see the million dollar payouts that he and his PAC have given disclosed as salary.
Brancaccio: But you think that even this odd sweepstakes is subject to disclosure rules?
Sarah Bryner: It is, because the group that’s doing this, which is the so-called America PAC, is required to file disclosures with the Federal Election Commission. So they have to itemize out how they spend their money, who gives to them, and so we will be there.
Brancaccio: What do we know about Elon Musk’s regular donations to super PACs? It’s at quite a level.
Sarah Bryner: Right now, he is the third most generous giver this cycle. But really, I think that understates his importance, because what he’s doing is really directing one of the most prominent super PACs backing Donald Trump. And by that, I mean he’s out there in the swing states, mobilizing voters in a way that we don’t usually see Super PACs behave. Usually, they just run ads and that’s it. That’s not how America PAC is functioning, and I think that that does grant Musk a higher degree of importance than a typical megadonor.