The Campaign-Finance Activist Who Thinks We Need More Money in Politics, Not Less

Billy, a large frat brother in a green shirt and white backward hat, cups his hands over his mouth and calls out: “Up next, we have a fund-raiser where we’re gonna throw water balloons at Dan Backer.” It’s Labor Day at American University in Washington, D.C., and Backer is standing with his wife and two small boys on the edge of a group of about 25 fraternity and sorority members wearing bathing suits and jorts. “He won McCutcheon v. FEC,” Billy says. “And — long story short — he is the reason campaign-finance law is what it is right now.” The students respond with haphazard applause and a few boos. Backer, in a blue wicking shirt and trunks, puts on his goggles and takes a seat in a lawn chair across from the crowd. “Any of you guys like Hillary Clinton?” he shouts, but the students, who are gathering balloons to throw at him, don’t seem to notice his trolling. “Oh, come on,” he says. “Nobody likes Hillary Clinton?!”

Perhaps nobody likes her less than Backer does. To him, “Hillary, the brand” — her status as a pantsuit-wearing cultural icon — “is bullshit.” Whatever she’s done as senator and secretary of State, it does not impress him: “This is someone,” he says, “who has not had a substantial accomplishment other than marrying poorly.”

Ever since the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling allowing corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts on elections, Backer has been leading the charge to get more money into politics. In 2011, he won a federal case allowing the creation of hybrid PACs, a new class of groups that are allowed to raise unlimited sums while also giving limited amounts to chosen candidates, as long as they keep separate accounts. Three years later, he won that Supreme Court case, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, that removed aggregate limits on the amounts individual donors can give in an election cycle. He’s listed as a treasurer for about 40 PACs, the best known of which is the Stop Hillary PAC, which has raised more than $1 million. Depending on your views, he is either ruining democracy or vigorously defending free speech.

Or, to the kids at Zeta Psi, a powerful frat brother they can make a few bucks throwing water balloons at. Backer, who was a Zeta Psi at UMass Amherst, has stayed involved with the group’s alumni organization and is happy to be the target of some water balloons tossed by college liberals to raise funds for the D.C. Rape Crisis Center.

Read more at New York Magazine.