ABC News: Outside fundraising groups plow ahead toward 2020, with or without Democratic nominee

With President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee amassing a war chest poised to be larger than 2016’s, and several of the 2020 Democrats turning their backs on independent political action committees know as super PACs, outside Democratic groups are preparing for a tough general election matchup against the incumbent, with or without a cooperative Democratic nominee….

To some campaign finance experts, the relationships between these groups and the presidential candidates aren’t always in keeping with the spirit of the candidates’ criticisms of the campaign finance system.

“You’re seeing that pretty much all the major candidates have problems when it comes to money in politics,” Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of Policy & Litigation at Common Cause, a nonpartisan government watchdog organization. “They have some gaps [between] their campaign stump rhetoric and their actual practices trying to run competitive presidential campaigns.”