Last month Karl Rove briefed a dozen lawmakers on strategy for the election. A super PAC-pol firewall? Not quite

On a steamy mid-July day on Capitol Hill, top lieutenants to House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy had a special guest at their weekly vote-counting meeting: Karl Rove.

In McCarthy’s conference room, tucked away on the first floor of the Capitol, Rove — adviser and rainmaker for the outside spending force American Crossroads — briefed the more than a dozen lawmakers on how the political climate across the country is shaping up and provided an overview of “broad strategy” for the election, according to several lawmakers present.


He waded into legislative politics, advising House Republicans to pass a short-term government funding bill to avoid a shutdown, which he said would be politically disastrous. Rove also expressed discontent with how Mitt Romney was talking about his wealth.

The intermingling of outside groups and politicians has become so routine that even a meeting in the Capitol led by a party’s top outside operative barely raises an eyebrow. The rules governing their interactions are in their infancy, so it’s all but pointless for either side to cry foul.

Rove is hardly alone.

( Also on POLITICO: American Crossroads spends big)

Former top aides to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who left the Hill to work for a trio of outside groups branded with Cantor’s “YG” political trademark and carrying his imprimatur, still provide the No. 2 Republican with messaging advice. Brad Dayspring, his former deputy chief of staff who serves as a senior adviser to the YG groups, has advised Cantor on political communication strategy, according to sources familiar with the relationship. YG stands for “Young Gun,” a term Cantor used when he penned a book with McCarthy and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the vice presidential candidate.

And John Murray, the groups’ president and also a former top Cantor aide, has spoken with the majority leader’s senior staff and frequently talks to Cantor himself.

“I see Eric as a function of me raising money, and in the course of conversation, does he ask me about my thoughts on communications things? Sure,” Murray said in an interview. “I’ve talked to Eric because I have a relationship with him through YG Action Fund and fundraising just like the rest of the folks who do what I do for a living.”

Federal law bars outside spending groups that raise unlimited sums of money from coordinating with politicians they’re trying to elect. But the rules are so narrow — super PACs and other groups can’t share nonpublic information with campaigns or party operatives, such as how much cash is being devoted to individual races — that the firewall they’re intended to create doesn’t exist.

And masters of the outside money game know it. During his talk, Rove tacitly acknowledged other rules meant to create distance between campaigns and governing, noting there were things he couldn’t discuss in a federal building, like individual races, according to sources. Because Rove isn’t a paid employee of Crossroads, and he didn’t wade into spending decisions in races or talk about polling, his briefing, based on accounts of it shared with POLITICO, is not considered coordination under the law.

A spokesman for Crossroads declined to comment for this story.

Since the post- Citizens United political universe is still in its infancy, and the laws governing how these groups can operate weren’t written with the current spending boom in mind, campaign law experts say there’s little to inhibit outside groups and politicians from rubbing elbows.

“It is like the Wild, Wild, West,” Joseph Sandler, a top campaign lawyer, said, speaking broadly about rules governing outside groups, “because we have not seen, so far, any pattern of enforcement of the existing rules by the Federal Election Commission to establish some of the guidelines more clearly.”

Top Democratic lawmakers aren’t steering clear of outside spending groups, either. Sources say Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are expected to appear on the sidelines of September’s Democratic National Convention at events including political briefings for major donors to the super PACs boosting Democratic congressional candidates and President Barack Obama.

One brunch is described in an invitation obtained by POLITICO as “an intimate gathering of senior Democratic policy leaders from Capitol Hill and Democratic institutions.”

Other Democratic insiders said Reid and Pelosi are briefed on the fundraising activities of Majority PAC and House Majority PAC, the two super PACs created to help elect House and Senate Democrats. Both Reid and Pelosi — as well as other Democratic lawmakers — have headlined events for the groups, although they can only solicit contributions of up to $5,000 per donor.

Campaign committees such as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee or the National Republican Senatorial Committee are not allowed to talk to super PACs about where they spend their money. But they do consult on hiring decisions and fundraising, according to people involved in both chambers’ leaderships.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee recently hosted a political briefing in Massachusetts’s Martha’s Vineyard for donors to the Majority PAC, the Senate Democratic super PAC.

Paul Begala, a top Democratic strategist paid by the super PAC supporting Obama, recently sent out a fundraising solicitation on behalf of the DCCC.

”We need you with us,” the email read, in part.

“I think the ‘we’ there is plainly we progressives, not DCCC and Priorities [USA Action],” Begala said in an interview. “There is certainly no coordination, and I am going to be sure none is ever implied. Given that the DCCC is all about House races, and [Priorities USA Action] is about the presidential [election], our lawyers felt that there was no risk that anyone would believe we were coordinating.”

Earlier this month, Rove delivered a political briefing at a gathering in Aspen, Colo., of major donors and Republican governors with Ed Gillespie, who is a senior adviser to Romney’s presidential campaign, which Crossroads has spent tens of millions of dollars boosting.

The line between super PAC stalwarts and candidates has blurred since the Republican presidential primary. Foster Friess, who donated $2.1 million to a super PAC supporting Rick Santorum’s presidential bid, traveled with the former Pennsylvania senator’s campaign. More recently, Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas casino magnate whose family has donated $10 million to a super PAC supporting Romney, embraced the former Massachusetts governor after a speech in Jerusalem and attended a closed-door, high-dollar fundraiser for his campaign.

Federal officials even help raise money for these organizations. Reid and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) frequently solicit cash for Majority PAC. The two top Senate Democrats, as well as Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the majority whip, have appeared at Majority PAC events across the country this summer.

And House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) pitches donors for the Congressional Leadership Fund, which supports House Republicans and GOP candidates. Cantor, similarly, raises money for the YG Action Fund. They cannot ask for more than $5,000 per donor.

At his meeting in the Capitol, Rove took Romney to task over how he talks about his personal wealth. Rove told the lawmakers that Romney gave the best explanation during a presidential debate when he said he was “proud of being successful” and “I’m not going to run from that.”

When Romney is asked about his wealth, he should pivot to talk about Obama, Rove said.

“The discussion was about the political landscape the current election is being fought out of,” said Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican who was at the talk. “His viewpoints of strengths, weaknesses, chances of success and the interaction between the political environment outside the building, so to speak, and the legislative environment — how that’s playing out. It was informative and thoughtful by a guy who has been both a domestic policy adviser to a United States president, also principal political operative and architect.”

“I thought it was a helpful and useful discussion.”