Zinke benefiting from Super PAC he created

Former state senator Ryan Zinke, a U.S. House candidate in Montana, is benefiting from a political action committee he created, leading at least one opponent and some experts to question the legality of the peculiar arrangement.

A former Navy SEAL seeking the Republican nomination for Montana’s lone congressional seat, Zinke, 52, created the Special Operations for America (SOFA) Super PAC to back Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.

The committee now backs candidates who support the military — and their first candidate is Zinke. Since October, when Zinke announced his candidacy, SOFA PAC has spent more than $70,000 on television, radio and Internet advertising in support of his campaign.

Zinke resigned from SOFA PAC in September. He said he had an attorney review the transition in the PAC’s leadership to ensure there was no conflict of interest or violation of any Federal Election Commission rules on campaign coordination. He also said he appreciates the PAC’s support but that it was not his decision.

“I resigned weeks before we announced,” Zinke told The Associated Press. “I wanted to make sure everything was aboveboard and squeaky clean.”

Zinke started SOFA PAC from an address near his home in Whitefish. He ran and lost as gubernatorial candidate Neil Livingstone’s running mate in the 2012 Republican primary. FEC filings show SOFA PAC raised $182,378 that year and spent all but $2,357 of it by year’s end.

Zinke’s campaign has raised more money than any other in the Republican House race that includes state Sen. Matt Rosendale, Rep. Elsie Arntzen, former state Sen. Corey Stapleton and conservative Drew Turiano.

Over the course of 2013, SOFA PAC raised $1,317,184 — 15th among Super PACS in money raised for the 2014 election cycle so far, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington, D.C.-based group that studies the effects of campaign contributions and lobbying.

Much of SOFA PAC’s money went to fundraising, research and strategy. But SOFA PAC began making independent expenditures supporting Zinke’s campaign in October, starting with Facebook and Google Internet ads. In November, SOFA PAC began spending thousands on television and radio ads telling voters to elect Zinke. By January, more than $70,000 was spent to help Zinke.

SOFA PAC has supported just one other candidate — a $120,000 media buy for Republican Shane Osborne’s U.S. Senate campaign in Nebraska.

Gary Stubblefield, who took over as SOFA PAC’s chairman in October, said he has had no communication with Zinke. “As far as I know, there is no contact. We follow the guidelines very closely,” Stubblefield said.

Zinke insists the organization was deliberately set up to counter the new criticism.

“We could have set it up where you can’t tell who the donors are. It was deliberately set up as an independent-expenditure organization because I wanted it to be transparent,” he said.

While most declined to be interviewed about Zinke and SOFA PAC, Stapleton said the appearance of a conflict is there.

“It’s not supposed to happen that way,” he said. “You’re not supposed to have a Super PAC raise money for themselves then hand it over with a wink and a nod and be able to use it as a source of revenue.”

Paul Ryan, chief counsel for the Washington D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center, called it uncharted territory when a person hands over control of a PAC to run for office. He speculated it could open the door for others to create Super PACS to rake in contributions from individuals and businesses, then announce their own candidacies.

“If this is permissible, one can envision the campaign-contribution limits being completely eviscerated,” Ryan said.