1 

FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

1050 FIRST STREET, N.E.

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20463

BEFORE THE FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

In the Matter of ) 

 ) MUR 7717

Theresa Greenfield for Iowa, et al. ) 

) 

 

STATEMENT OF REASONS OF CHAIRMAN ALLEN DICKERSON

AND COMMISSIONER JAMES E. “TREY” TRAINOR, III

This Matter involved the alleged republication of campaign materials produced 

by the campaign committee of Theresa Greenfield, who sought election to the United 

States Senate in the 2020 general election, by an independent-expenditure-only 

committee known as SMP.1 

The complaint alleged that SMP issued communications using video footage 

and talking points that had been circulated on publicly accessible web pages by 

Greenfield’s campaign committee.2 Our Office of General Counsel (“OGC”), relying 

upon 11 C.F.R. § 109.23, argued that such republication would convert SMP’s dulyreported independent expenditures into illegal in-kind campaign contributions.3

As we have stated elsewhere, that regulation “contradicts [the Federal 

Election Campaign Act’s] text and is therefore contrary to law.”4 Accordingly, “in 

order to remain faithful to our enabling legislation,” the Commission may only find 

that republished campaign materials are in-kind contributions where OGC can 

1 SMP, the committee’s official name, is an acronym for “Senate Majority PAC.” SMP supports the 

election of Democratic candidates, such as Ms. Greenfield, to the Senate.

2 First Gen’l Counsel’s Report (“FGCR”) at 2-5, MUR 7717 (Theresa Greenfield for Iowa), Oct. 19, 2020.

3 FGCR at 13 (recommending that the Commission “[f]ind reason to believe that SMP...violated [the 

law] by making excessive in-kind contributions to Theresa Greenfield for Iowa and...by failing to 

report the in-kind contributions”).

4 Statement of Reasons of Chairman Dickerson and Comm’r Trainor at 3, MUR 7781 (Fight for the 

Am. Dream PAC), April 11, 2022.

MUR771700114
2 

“establish actual coordination using the same standards applied to any other form of 

public communication.”5 

The record before the Commission does not meet that standard. As OGC itself 

advised us in recommending that we decline to enforce against Ms. Greenfield’s 

campaign committee on the theory that it violated our garden-variety coordination

rules, “the record contains no information that any direct or private communications 

were made between the Greenfield Committee and SMP.”6 Therefore, we determined 

that “[w]ere the Commission to pursue enforcement on the theory that [SMP]’s noncoordinated republication of Committee materials was an in-kind contribution, it 

seem[ed]...highly probable that a reviewing court would simply invalidate § 109.23 

as directly contradictory to FECA.”7

Accordingly, as we have done elsewhere,8 we voted to dismiss the allegations 

against SMP pursuant to the Commission’s prosecutorial discretion.9

_________________________________ _________________________ 

Allen Dickerson Date

Chairman

_________________________________ _________________________ 

James E. “Trey” Trainor, III Date

Commissioner 

5 Id. at 4.

6 FGCR at 12.

7 Statement of Reasons of Chairman Dickerson and Comm’r Trainor at 4, MUR 7781 (Fight for the 

Am. Dream PAC), April 11, 2022. 

8 Id. 

9 Heckler v. Chaney, 470 U.S. 821 (1985).

April 15, 2022

April 15, 2022

MUR771700115