FEC ruling could take down Democrats

UPI ^ | 3-12-04 | MARIE HORRIGAN

[Indy Pendance]

WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) -- Democratic congressional leadership has rolled out a strikingly unified front in support of presumed presidential nominee John Kerry, but a pending ruling with the Federal Election Commission could devastate a significant source of their funding.

Organizations known as 527s have emerged as soft money dumping grounds, allowing candidates to circumnavigate hard limits on the amount of money individuals, corporations and unions can donate to their campaigns. The rules governing 527s, established in the wake of the far-reaching McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, have not been fully worked out, and thus far Democrats have been using the uncertainty to their advantage.

Reports circulated Washington in the past week that several 527s have launched what amounts to a parallel campaign to Kerry's official presidential bid, in essence augmenting the campaign's funds, which stood at nearly $30 million to President Bush's $147 million as of Feb. 1.

Allegations about possible misdeeds involving 527s are unlikely to cost Kerry any votes, Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told UPI. "Voters' eyes glaze over about charges concerning campaign spending, and for good reason. Everybody's guilty," he said. "They push the system as far as it can go."

But "politically (the 527s) could become a problem for Kerry because he's gone out of his way to separate himself from special interests, and the Republicans are going to do everything they can to make these groups and their funders defined as special interests," he said.

Steven Weiss, communications director for the watchdog group the Center for Responsive Politics, said he doesn't think the Republicans are attacking the 527s to bring them to the public's attention.

"Republicans certainly are attacking these groups now," Weiss said, "I think more so out of the concern about the impact these groups could have than out of the desire to score political points or to strengthen Bush's campaign."

The Bush re-election campaign filed a complaint Tuesday with the FEC regarding a 527 organization, the Media Fund, and its contributors, for "blatantly using illegal 'soft money' to influence the presidential election."

The Media Fund was created by former Clinton adviser Harold Ickes and aided by former Kerry Campaign Manager Jim Jordan, the complaint said, and has broken campaign finance laws by failing to register as a political committee.

The campaign wants the FEC to move quickly to investigate the Media Fund and its donors, to "stop this violation" and possibly impose sanctions, spokesman Scott Stanzel told UPI.

The FEC itself is trying to figure out what is legal with 527s. It announced Friday it was accepting comments on the rules surround the 527s, with public hearing set for April 14-15. It sought to examine "whether the current definitions of 'political committee' adequately encompasses all organizations that should be considered political committees subject to the limitations, prohibitions and reporting requirements of the (Federal Election Campaign) Act."

The FEC also plans to look into whether "the definition of 'expenditure' and its implications, along with the rules for allocating funds for activities involving both federal and nonfederal elections are also a part of this rulemaking."

Neither the Kerry campaign nor the Democratic National Committee returned repeated calls for comment Friday.

However, Deputy Campaign Manager Steve Elmendorf dismissed the issue when asked about it following an appearance by Kerry on Capitol Hill. "The point of campaign finance reform, which we were intimately involved in, was to prevent special interest groups from raising large amounts of soft funds," Elmendorf said. "It's illegal."

Sen. Edward Kennedy, a strong supporter of his fellow Massachusetts senator, told UPI the campaign would not be affected by the actions of such groups. "We don't have anything to do with them," Kennedy said Thursday.

But aside from the political fallout of the organizations, losing that valuable source of funding could be catastrophic for the Kerry campaign, Weiss said.

"Practically, these groups are going to be immensely useful to the campaign. ... If they were shut down it would be a major problem for them."

The FEC is scheduled to vote on the issue in mid-May, nearly six months before the general election.

[goldstategop]

If George Soros can't spend his billions - well we all know money is the root of all evil in politics. The Democrats certainly argued it was the reason we needed CFR in the first place. Now its time for them to live up to their pledge.

[Robert_Paulson2]

but they won't.
and nothing will happen.

[swilhelm73]

So in other words, if nutty bliionaries can't personally buy the Democrat party, they can't raise enough money from ordinary Americans to compete and will have to rely complete on their plaint media tools.

[Constitutional Patriot]

The dems can't raise enough $$$ from ordinary Americans (oh yeah...this country is split down the middle....BS!!!) so they have to raise $$$ from shady sources via 527 orgs. What a bunch of crap!!

They are going down in a big way and they know it. They have pulled all the stops out for this election because it could very well be their last hope to force their twisted socialist view of America down our throats.

[zarf]

Nonsense. The money will find it's way to the Kerry campaign come hell or high water. Regardless of the FEC's decision.

[azcap]

The dems can't raise enough $$$ from ordinary Americans (oh yeah...this country is split down the middle....BS!!!)

 

The split down the middle is not BS. You just have to realize that their half produces little and gives less. When the Rats have conditioned their half of America to constantly demand a handout they shouldn't be shocked when they don't donate anything.

[So Cal Rocket]

You are correct, oh wise person.

The day to dread is when the demographics of this country are such that 50% + 1 of the voters pay no taxes.

[TeleStraightShooter]

Keen observation

It would be interesting to know from whence the respective parties reaped their funds, and though what conduits.
I could be very illustrative of your position.

Anyone know where to find this stuff?

[jackbill]

If anyone has seen Bradley Smith, the Republican Chairman of the FEC on TV recently, they would get the message that he will most likely vote with the three DemocRATs, against the two other Republicans on this issue.

[OldFriend]

By the time the decision is made, hundreds of millions of dollars will have been spent and the cockroaches will have found a different way to accomplish their goal.....the destruction of America.

[Tax Government]

Ah, wonderful! This is true poetic justic.

DemocRats, seeking to enact campaign finance "reform" and thus deprive common people -- even rich ones -- of the right to spend money on elections, have fallen afoul of their own trap.

Campaign finance reform indeed.

[whereasandsoforth]

Why don't we be the bigger party and go ahead and appoint Kerry president. This would save the dems so much pain. And we should go ahead and pass a law that the house and the senate must maintain a 60-40% split with the dems being the 60%. We must respect the "new tone".

[expatpat]

Yes, I agree. However, nobody seems to have considered the possibility that conservative groups can raise similar large soft funds, and are waiting to see how the FEC rules before letting go their broadsides.

[TheBattman]

So - how does the CFR law and the FEC weigh in on these supposed "3rd person" groups that are running very negative anti-Bush ads? I thought these could be "issue" ads but could not mention the candidates by name.

Just saw one of these anti-Bush ads a moment ago. It mentioned GW by name, but was paid for by a group I didn't recognize....If I see it again, I will report back the sponsor of the ad.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I saw him on Fox with Britt Hume an I would say that he will vote to allow the 527's. He had extensive verbiage to support his rationale.

[cripplecreek]

"The money will find it's way to the Kerry campaign come hell or high water"


Dont suppose i could get Soros to float 2 grand my way. I'll promise to send it to the Kerry campaign. Really i will.....honest.

[festus]

You're right. If bush had the cajones to do something about this he'd never have signed the bill in the first place.........

[caisson71]

Rules, laws, court decisions, etc, don't mean anything to the power-at-all-cost liberal Democrats. Any undesirable law will be taken to their "terrorist cells" of activist judges they have installed throughout America. They redefine gutter politics every day by their every action.

[adam_az]

The day to dread is when the demographics of this country are such that 50% + 1 of the voters pay no taxes.

*DING DING DING* GIVE THIS MAN THE PRIZE!