Ramtin Arablui and Randa Abdelfattah

You often see a box that says, voters need to know, as followed by certain themes and target audiences.

But it's actually not for voters.

Exactly.

Those messages are directly meant for super PACs to use for their own ads.

Next up, silent B-roll.

Polished, soundless video that's posted online.

on YouTube, for example, or Vimeo and other spaces.

So the outside groups then lift it for ads so everything stays on brand without a single phone call.

Public memos.

Sometimes candidates issue briefs and opposition research posted in public, and then outside groups can recycle the language nearly word for word.

You also have what we call slow walked announcements.

So once you announce your candidacy as a candidate, you can no longer coordinate with these outside groups.

But before you announce it, you can do whatever.

So sometimes what you see is that they delay the formal launch while the outside machine raises money and builds the infrastructure first.

This is why several super PACs are headed by former campaign leaders, people who have inside knowledge of the election strategy.

When consultants leave the campaign, the candidate campaign, they have to sit out a cooling off period, 120 days, and then they can then join the super PAC.

Then there are super PAC fundraisers who ask candidates to be a guest.

And you might be asking yourself, but isn't that type of coordination in order to raise money illegal?

Candidates can headline super PAC events and publicly applaud the group's work.

But then they leave the event...