'Friends and family' super PACs play big in some House races

WASHINGTON — Republican Trey Hollingsworth moved to Indiana last fall and soon began campaigning for an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The transplanted Tennessean had some big advantages on his way to winning the May 3 primary. The 32-year-old multimillionaire could spare the $1.2 million he plowed into his own campaign. And an outside super PAC, which cannot legally coordinate its advertising with Hollingsworth, sprang up to attack one of his rivals, Indiana Attorney Greg Zoeller, on his behalf.

All of its money, however, came from a single source: the candidate’s dad back in Tennessee, Joe Hollingsworth.

Super PACs, which can raise unlimited sums, have become a staple of U.S. elections. But this year’s races highlight the ways candidates’ close allies have seized on them to navigate around rules that restrict them from donating more than $2,700 to a candidate for the primary or general election.

Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer, one of the leading critics of super PACs, said the practice is a “flat-out of evasion of campaign-contribution limits” and makes a “mockery” of election laws. “The notion that a super PAC funded by a family member … is independent is simply an oxymoron,” he said.

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A USA TODAY analysis of newly filed reports found 182 super PACs with three or fewer donors during the 2016 election cycle. In all, they have collected $71.6 million or nearly 10% of the $766 million raised by all super PACs through the end of April.

The single-donor groups range from labor unions moving money into their own super PACs to Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, replenishing the funds in a group he controls, Independence USA. Bloomberg's super PAC works to elect candidates who share his views on gun-control, the environment, education and gay rights.

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In other cases, these PACs also amount to "friends and family" committees, in which a spouse, parent or longtime friend emerges as the sole funder to help elect a loved one. Super PACs funded by just a handful of donors have been active in at least two Maryland Houses races, for instance.

In one contest, Amie Hoeber, a national security consultant from the Washington suburb of Potomac, captured the GOP nomination with help from nearly $1.7 million in outside spending by super PAC called Maryland USA. The group was funded almost entirely by donations from her husband, Mark Epstein, who has served as a top executive with Qualcomm.  “All he does is write checks,” Hoeber told USA TODAY about her husband’s role in the super PAC. “There’s no other involvement.”

Hoeber said she’s been “absolutely pristine” about maintaining an “arm’s length” relationship from the super PAC, before adding that she needed to include her lawyer in the interview before answering any more questions.

Her attorney, veteran Republican campaign lawyer Charles Spies, said contributing money is no indication of improper coordination. “Amie’s husband makes donations and sends checks but has no contact other than that,” he said in a phone interview.

In Indiana, Hollingsworth ruffled feathers in the state’s Republican establishment when he decided to compete against better-known Republicans for an open House seat that represents a big slice of southern Indiana. One of his rivals dubbed him “Tennessee Trey,” and the Democrats’ House campaign arm has denounced him as a “carpet-bagging millionaire Daddy’s boy,” aiming to buy his way into Congress.

Trey Hollingsworth would be among richest in U.S. House if he wins Indiana's 9th Dist.

Federal Election Commission records show Joe Hollingsworth contributed $500,000 to Indiana Jobs Now ahead of the primary. The senior Hollingsworth’s Clinton, Tenn., company builds industrial facilities throughout the South.

Neither Hollingsworth’s campaign spokeswoman nor Joe Hollingsworth responded to interview requests.

New Hampshire-based strategist David Carney, who oversees Indiana Jobs Now, said Joe Hollingsworth came up with the idea of starting the super PAC late last year and then stepped back and allowed the strategists to run it. “He was not involved in any of the things that we did,” he said. That included an ad called "Clones," that described the younger Hollingsworth as a "conservative outsider" in a sea of carbon-copy politicians.

Trey Hollingsworth’s primary win means he could soon be on his way to Washington. He faces Democrat Shelli Yoder, a college professor and a former Miss Indiana, in the general election, but independent political handicappers rate the seat as solidly Republican.

The super PAC, however, won’t be closing up shop anytime soon.

Carney said Joe Hollingsworth recently contributed another $400,000, and the PAC now will broaden its focus to help elect other Indiana Republicans with business backgrounds to state and federal offices. “Joe’s philosophy is that there’s something to having some business experience and worrying about having to make a payroll,” Carney said.