--- description: David Keating, the man responsible for the creation of super PACs, marvels at how they will be used in 2016. title: Meet the Man Who Invented the Super PAC image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22e544a4f4e72eea/6987ef5e428a9eb44bccb5f7/david-keating-center-for-competitive-politics.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Campaign Finance](/tag/campaign-finance/) ## Campaign Finance Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Meet the Man Who Invented the Super PAC  by [Alex Altman](/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. May 13, 2015 2:09 PM CUT  David Keating of the Center for Competitive Politics testifies during a Senate hearing highlighting abuses in the public financing of campaigns on May 7, 2013, in Albany, N.Y. David Keating of the Center for Competitive Politics testifies during a Senate hearing highlighting abuses in the public financing of campaigns on May 7, 2013, in Albany, N.Y.Mike Groll—AP  by [Alex Altman](/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. May 13, 2015 2:09 PM CUT The mastermind behind the super PAC has no regrets. “My only regret is the backlash,” David Keating says with a wry smile. Keating is one of the most influential political activists you’ve never heard of. He was the architect of a federal lawsuit that ended in a landmark 2010 court ruling that reshaped the way elections are run. The case, _SpeechNow.org vs. FEC,_ scrapped annual limits on individual contributions to campaign advocacy groups, ushering in the era of super PACs—political-action committees that can raise unlimited sums as long as they don’t coordinate directly with parties or candidates. Five years later, campaigns are only beginning to harness the power of Keating’s creation. In the 2016 presidential race, virtually all of the candidates will have companion super PACs, many of which will wield more influence than the campaigns themselves. Candidates have leveraged super PACs to supercharge fundraising, pay for staff salaries and trips to primary states and even assume [the duties once reserved for the campaigns themselves](http://time.com/3758900/super-pacs-2016/ "undefined"), from running TV ads and organizing supporters to direct mail campaigns and digital microtargeting. Many of these innovations have surprised Keating, a soft-spoken man with a graying beard. But he delights in watching how, year by year, political strategists are using super PACs to refine the mechanics of elections. Using a super PAC specifically to promote a candidate “just never entered my mind,” he says. “But it’s totally obvious when you think about it.” Not everyone is so sanguine about the impact of his creation. Political critics, campaign-finance watchdogs and even some candidates argue that super PACs have invited an avalanche of outside spending that gives the wealthy outsize influence and makes a mockery of the limits established by the FEC. “We need to fix our dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all,” Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton said recently. But it’s a sign of the super PAC’s power that Clinton has nonetheless [embraced](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/us/politics/hillary-clinton-to-court-donors-for-super-pac.html?%5Fr=0 "undefined") a group of her own. Despite her stated objections, she plans to personally court influential donors, according to the New York _Times_. Keating celebrates such changes. A longtime conservative activist, he believes in an unfettered right to political speech, and decries caps on campaign donations as an infringement of First Amendment rights. Now the president of the Center for Competitive Politics, an independent group that works to loosen campaign-finance regulations, he says his mission was “to do for the First Amendment what the NRA did for the Second.” Keating casts super PACs as a better way for ordinary citizens to organize and exercise their First Amendment rights. “It comes down to speech,” he says. “If you don’t like \[others’\] speech, start your own group and talk to people.” And he argues a system that allows the super-rich to pump a gusher of cash into elections is a testament to a thriving democracy. “That’s how we elected all our great presidents,” he told TIME in an interview Tuesday in his office in Alexandria, Va., ticking off leaders from Lincoln to Eisenhower who took office after elections held under looser campaign-finance regulations. “Rich people have always had the ability to spend whatever they want.” _SpeechNow_ came on the heels of _Citizens United,_ its more-celebrated brethren in the annals of campaign-finance deregulation. “After _Citizens_, our case became a total slam dunk,” he says. Though lesser known, _SpeechNow_ significantly widened the impact of _Citizens_, making it the arguably the more important of the two landmark cases. The combination paved the way for an election that has already seen significant evolutions in super PAC usage. The two most interesting innovations in 2016, Keating says, have been the quartet of interlinked super PACs backing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and the approach taken by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has delayed his campaign launch to stockpile his Right to Rise PAC. The group has effectively supplanted Bush’s campaign-in-waiting as the hub of his political operation. “What Jeb is doing takes a lot of discipline” due to the prohibitions on direct coordination, Keating notes, though says he is confident that Bush’s lawyers have kept him on the right side of the law. Though a staunch conservative—he was formerly an executive at groups like the National Taxpayers Union and the Club for Growth—Keating appears to admire the political innovations of the super PAC era no matter where they come from. He notes that Correct the Record, a research group originally formed to defend Clinton, has relaunched as a pro-Clinton super PAC that says it is able to coordinate with the likely Democratic nominee because it will restrict itself from paid media campaigns. “Here is another innovation–a Super PAC that can legally coordinate with a candidate,” he wrote in an email Tuesday evening. “The reason why they can do that is because they will not make any public communications, as defined in the regulations. Mass mailings do not include e-mail. “Clever,” he concluded. But maybe not. About an hour later he emailed again. “This … issue is actually pretty complicated,” he noted, “and it’s not clear they can do what they say they want to do. There isn’t enough detail about their plans to determine if what they plan to do is OK or not.” It seemed a fitting testament to the murkiness of this new campaign-finance landscape that even its creator can’t always be sure what’s legal. ### Photos: Meet America's Top 10 Political Families  The Bush family dynasty begins with Prescott S. Bush, who represented Connecticut in the Senate from 1952 to 1963\. His son George H. W. Bush served as Vice President, Director of the CIA, and President from 1989 to 1993\. His son George W. Bush was governor of Texas and, from 2001 to 2009, President of the United States. George W's brother Jeb served as governor of Florida and is thought to be a possible contender for the White House in 2016. Getty Images  Then Vice President George H. W. Bush sits with his sons George W. and Jeb while vacationing in Kennebunkport, Maine, in August 1983. Cynthia Johnson—Getty Images  Joseph P. Kennedy was a multi-millionaire, U.S. ambassador to Britain and the patriarch of a political dynasty that included his sons pictured above, Robert Kennedy (left), U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Senator and candidate for President assassinated while campaigning in 1968, and John F. Kennedy (right), President of the U.S. from 1961 until he was assassinated in office in 1963. Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty Images  Pictured here on Easter Sunday 1963: John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy with their two children, John Jr. (left), who would become a publisher and die in a plane crash in 1999, and Caroline (right), an attorney, writer, and U.S. Ambassador to Japan. The Kennedy clan also includes Ted Kennedy, who served in the U.S. Senate until his death in 2009, Robert Kennedy Jr., a prominent environmental activist, Joseph P. Kennedy III, who was elected to Congress in 2012, and many other prominent Americans. MPI/Getty Images  The Clintons started their political dynasty in Arkansas in 1976, when Bill was elected Attorney General. He went on to win the governors seat and, in 1992, the Presidency. After leaving the White House, Hillary served as a Senator from New York and Secretary of State. She's widely expected to make her own White House bid in 2016. Brooks Kraft—Corbis  Born in 1980, Bill and Hillary's daughter Chelsea is married to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, the son of two former members of Congress. On September 27, 2014, they added another member to the Clinton dynasty: their daughter, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky FilmMagic/Getty Images  As a libertarian-minded Republican in congress for decades, Rep. Ron Paul (right) became the defacto leader of the libertarian movement in the U.S. His son Rand Paul (left) is now trying to take on that mantle as a Senator from Kentucky and likely presidential hopeful. Ed Reinke—AP  U.S. Sen. Rand Paul talks to his father Rep. Ron Paul during a news conference June 22, 2011 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong—Getty Images  Dick Cheney (right) has served as a congressman, White House aide, Secretary of Defense and unusually powerful Vice President, but he's not the only political force in the family. His daughter Liz Cheney (left) is a conservative commentator and activist who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2014. AP (2)  Cheney's daughters Liz (left) and Mary (right), pictured here at home in Wyoming in 1978, had a highly public row later in life, when Mary, who is gay, called out Liz for refusing to support same-sex marriage. David Hume Kennerly—Getty Images  Both George Romney and his son Mitt rose to national political prominence but neither held the top job. The elder Romney, who served as Governor of Michigan, ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in 1968\. Mitt Romney served as Governor of Massachusetts and secured the Republican presidential nomination in 2012\. He was defeated in the general election. Getty Images; Corbis  George Romney announced his intention to run for governor of Michigan, with his son Mitt and his wife Lenore by his side, on February 10, 1962. RDA/Getty Images  Descended from Mormon pioneers, the Udall family have held high political positions from states across the American West. To cite one of many examples, Stewart Udall served as Secretary of the Department of Interior under President Lyndon Johnson. Today, his son Tom Udall (right) represents New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, and his nephew Mark Udall (left) represents Colorado in the same body. CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images (2)  The large Udall clan also includes local officials, congressmen and state legislators. AP  The Taft family includes prominent Americans extending back to the colonial era. William Howard Taft (left) was President from 1909 to 1913 and later appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. His son Robert A. Taft (right) wielded extraordinary power and influence as a member of the U.S. Senate, where he served until his death in 1953. Getty Images (2)  Theodore Roosevelt first become president after the assassination of President McKinley in 1901 and served until 1909\. Franklin Roosevelt was a great admirer of his fifth cousin Theodore, and became President himself, serving from 1933 to 1945, the longest consecutive administration in America’s history. Getty Images (2)  America’s original political dynasty, the Adams family had a hand in some of the most consequential events in the country’s history. John Adams was a member of the Continental Congress, a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, and served as America’s first President from 1797 to 1801\. John Quincy Adams became the first son of a President to become President, serving from 1825 to 1829. 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