predicate

And those two factors provide the predicate for the voting wars, where political parties drive rule changes that they hope or expect would give their party an advantage in a close election.

But if they can link that to a predicate crime, like election fraud, which is what the state is trying to do, or tax evasion, then they can bump the charges up to a felony.

Shugerman said he couldn't find a case of a state prosecutor "relying on the Federal Election Campaign Act either as a direct crime or a predicate crime."

"And what I think is trying to be established here is the foundation for the predicate crime."

Prosecutors, then, could establish the predicate crime by showing the payments were therefore made to hide the information and influence the strength of the campaign.