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Watching the Lehrer report on PBS right now. The discussion was about Kerry and his taking of soft money, PAC money, special interest money. The guest, David Brooks, of the NYTimes said that Kerry has taken plenty of special interest money, no more no less than the typical politician. What caught my ear was that he said Kerry was also a receiver of some money from Johnny Chung. Isn't Chung the bag man with brown paper bags of money brought to Klintoon?? Let's see what we can dig up, eh folks? G

The Federal Election Commission decided yesterday that many of the political committees raising "soft" money to campaign against President Bush are subject to regulation, but it postponed deciding how tough the restrictions should be. The FEC voted 4 to 2 to warn Americans for a Better Country that activities that "promote, attack, support or oppose" a federal candidate must be paid for with hard money, a type of political donation that, unlike soft money, has tight restrictions on sources and amounts. This is a broader standard than used in the past. Activities that benefit a mix of federal, state and...

<p>The Federal Election Commission yesterday voted 4-2 to place restrictions on political advocacy groups with no expressed party affiliation that use "soft money" to influence elections.</p> <p>At the same time, the six-member commission delayed a decision on a campaign-finance law that prohibits money from big businesses and unions from going to tax-exempt groups that are connected to political parties.</p>

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Trent Lott (R-Miss.) plans to hold hearings on the emergence of 527 soft-money fundraising groups, significantly expanding the GOP assault on what has become known as the Democratic “shadow party.” Lott’s plans will enhance the position of Republican leaders and their unlikely allies in the campaign finance reform community who want strict curbs on these groups, which plan to spend over $300 million this year to influence federal races. Republicans and campaign finance reformers traditionally have locked horns over efforts to regulate the campaign finance system. Hopes of restraining the groups flagged this week when Bradley...

Can someone please explain (preferably with sources) the distinction of PAC vs any other lobbyist? Over the past weeks I've had a slew of arguments with Dems who tout Kerry's "No PAC Money" stance as indicative of the second coming and try as I might I can't figure out what the difference is --in this realm--between the Sierra Club and... well any other group really...

FEC Chairman Backs Organizations' Use of 'Soft Money' McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Law Doesn't Apply to Political Interest Groups, Smith Says Defying Republican Party demands to rule illegal the plans of a network of pro-Democratic political committees, Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley A. Smith now argues that these committees should remain free to raise and spend large contributions known as "soft money." Smith's argument, spelled out in a 37-page proposal to his five FEC colleagues, sharply increases, but does not guarantee, the likelihood that new pro-Democratic groups with multimillion-dollar budgets will become significant forces in the 2004 election and become what...

<p>BERKELEY, Calif. -- The biggest powerhouse in progressive politics had decidedly inauspicious beginnings: an overheard conversation at a local Chinese restaurant, a high-tech chain letter, and $89.</p> <p>Five years ago, tech entrepreneurs Joan Blades and her husband, Wes Boyd -- whose company gave the world the flying-toaster screen saver -- were eating lunch and listening to a group at a nearby table lamenting the time and energy wasted on the President Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal. Blades and Boyd decided to start a petition urging Congress to forgo impeachment, censure Clinton instead, and move on. They e-mailed it to their friends, asked them to pass it on, and paid $89 to set up a website where people could register their support.</p>

The network of soft-money fundraising groups known as the “shadow” Democratic Party has fallen significantly short of its fundraising goals even as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), faces heavy Republican attacks in coming months. Eight of the largest and most prominent liberal soft-money funds — known as 527s after a section of the federal tax code — have raised less than 10 percent of their expected outlays for the 2004 election. “My view is that most soft-money donors are not going to move money to outside groups to keep it flowing into federal campaigns because the incentives...

FEC Asked to Withhold Sharpton's Matching Funds 2/5/04 8:21:00 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk Contact: Ken Boehm of the National Legal and Policy Center, 703-237-1970, http://www.nlpc.org WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) announced that it will file an amendment today to its Feb. 2 complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging additional violations of federal campaign law by Rev. Al Sharpton and others. The amendment will update the Feb. 2 complaint to reflect information contained in a February 3 Village Voice article by Wayne Barrett titled "Sleeping With the GOP: A...

Major liberal donors are demonstrating their willingness to fund a new shadow Democratic Party, according to reports filed Friday by a network of nominally independent organizations committed to defeating President Bush in November. At the same time, momentum to bar their activities gained new strength. On Thursday, the legal staff of the Federal Election Commission proposed regulations that could choke off the groups' plans, with backing from an alliance of Republican Party leaders and campaign-watchdog groups. The reports filed Friday with the Internal Revenue Service and the FEC showed millions of dollars flowing from unions, wealthy individuals, environmental groups and...

For the most part, Hollywood is bone-deep liberal. And the Sundance Film Festival -- all indie motivations aside -- is, essentially, a mountaintop suburb of Hollywood. What better ground for Democrats to work for campaign money and recruits than Sundance? And no more opportune time to stir hearts than a presidential election year when the incumbent is President Bush. With that thinking in mind, the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean supporters and organizers of MoveOn.org have scheduled screenings and fund-raisers in Park City next week. To top it off, former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, are expected...

<p>The Republican National Committee plans to ask the Federal Election Commission today to ban the raising of $300 million or more in "soft money" by pro-Democratic groups seeking to pay for voter mobilization and TV ads in this year's elections.</p>

For those who think that there is too much money in politics (and think most of it is Republican) there is just one word -- Soros. That is George Soros, the left-wing radical billionaire who has pledged to personally spend tens of millions of dollars to try to unseat George Bush in 2004. Defeating the Bush administration -- which he recklessly likened to Nazis and communists -- has become an obsessive focus of Soros life. His recent $10 million contribution to the new Democrat activist group America Coming Together was the largest single donation from an individual in history. Soros...

<p>WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court's affirmation of campaign-finance reform is sending California Democrats to the Internet and Republicans to see how state money- raising laws can help them fill the gap the ban on soft money is going to create.</p>

<p>November 25, 2003 -- THE Democratic Party is being replaced by a new group called "Americans Coming Together," which has been launched with two $10 million donations from financier George Soros and Peter B. Lewis, chairman of the Progressive Corporation. The new organization wants to raise $94 million to finance a massive campaign against Bush - all with soft money. The Democratic Party, which is only allowed to raise hard money (donations limited to $2,000 per person) by the McCain-Feingold law is unable to amass the resources necessary for a national campaign, so it is ceding the main role to Americans Coming Together.</p>

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 — Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic National Committee chairman, found himself under the disco lights at a dance-club fund-raiser one recent evening. The total raised from 4,400 donors was about $250,000. It was a blunt contrast to three years ago, when the chairman stood with President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and more than 13,000 Democratic supporters in Washington's convention center. The take that night was $26.5 million. "It's a whole different world today," Mr. McAuliffe said. Democrats provided most of the backing for last year's campaign finance law, which bars national political parties from taking unlimited...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Billionaire George Soros has opened his wallet to try to elect a Democratic president. Liberal activist Norman Lear is trying to register new voters. And one of President Bush's recount lawyers is forming a group to spend big checks to help Bush win a new term. A year from the election, people both for and against Bush are raising millions of dollars to try to affect the race's outcome, despite a ban on the use of corporate, union and unlimited contributions to influence federal elections. "We were never for the soft money limits in the first place,"...

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of President Bush's lawyers during the 2000 Florida recount is creating a group to spend millions advocating Bush's re-election, hoping to counter efforts by billionaire George Soros and others to help Democrats capture the White House. Attorney George Terwilliger and Republican political consultants Frank Donatelli and Craig Shirley are asking the Federal Election Commission for advice on whether their plan is legal under the new campaign finance law, according to a copy of the letter. The law bars the use of so-called soft money — corporate, union and unlimited contributions — in connection with federal elections....

GOP fears $420M avalanche By Hans Nichols Republicans fear left-leaning advocacy groups will raise up to $420 million in unregulated contributions, the kind of soft money that the 2002 McCain-Feingold law prevents the parties themselves from collecting. While Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie questioned the legality of pledges from wealthy donors like George Soros and Peter Lewis who advocate the defeat of President Bush, Republican groups will use those high numbers to galvanize their own soft money base. Gillespie told reporters in a conference call yesterday that he was unaware of any Republican groups that are “prepared to spend...

<p>Republicans worry that President Bush may not be able to fill his re-election fund with anything close to what Democrats are raising to defeat him next year, thanks to a loophole in the campaign finance law.</p> <p>"The Sierra Club, the AFL-CIO, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, MoveOn.org and America Coming Together are raising up to $421 million to spend on the presidential election next year," Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie wrote last week to former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, in a letter urging the leading Democratic candidate to take a stand against the flood of unregulated "soft money" contributions.</p>

Last June, the billionaire investor George Soros announced that he was cutting back the work his foundation, the Open Society Institute, did in Russia so that he could focus his attention on the United States. The change was needed, Soros told reporters in Moscow, because the political scene in America had become "quite dangerous." In the Bush administration, Soros explained, "the executive branch has come under the influence of a group of ideologues who have forgotten the first principle of an open society: that they don't have a monopoly on truth." Soros, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Hungary, said...

<p>With less than three months to go before the Iowa caucuses, the Democratic candidates are frantically trying to fill their coffers in order to fund the TV ads that will air in January and February in the early states. President Bush, meanwhile, is laughing all the way to the bank.</p>

Ken Mehlman Campaign Manager Bush-Cheney '04 September 29, 2003 Dear XXXXX, Last week, I warned you that liberal special interests had pledged to spend over $400 million to defeat President Bush. Join this campaign by making your contribution of $2,000, $1,000, $500, or even $250 or $100 today! Since my message to you, the Washington Post has revealed that these liberal groups have already raised over $185 million of their $400 million goal. They have already begun spending it on ads to defeat our President. http://www.GeorgeWBush.com/SupportOurPresident/ This confirms that we will face a tough, well-funded Democrat attack campaign. While the...

WASHINGTON -- Known for her outspoken activism, Jane Fonda is tops among supporters of interest groups that help political parties get out their messages despite donation and spending limits, according to a study released Wednesday.The nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity, in what it billed as the first comprehensive look at such organizations, found they had spent an eye-popping $450 million to influence political campaigns over the last three years.The center, using a computer analysis of Internal Revenue Service disclosures filed by 471 of the political organizations, concluded that both major parties have made extensive use of their "silent partners," who...

Imagine a political organization with more than $250 million in the bank, a fine-tuned direct-mail operation, some of the best political minds in the country, and legions of volunteers at the ready. … This group is America Votes, a confederacy of liberal causes that is mobilizing to fill the money void left by a new campaign-finance law that is hampering Democrats' fund-raising. … With a Presidential election bearing down, America Votes pulls together some 20 progressive interests in a kind of shadow party. …America Votes is the first evolutionary response to the law's fund-raising restrictions. And it might be the...

from the September 08, 2003 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0908/p01s01-usju.html Showdown over money in politicsIn rare summer session, Supreme Court Monday takes up issue of 'soft money,' which may reshape campaigning.By Warren Richey | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor WASHINGTON - Competing visions of the role of money in American politics are at the center of a showdown over campaign-finance reform at the US Supreme Court Monday. On one side are campaign-finance reform advocates who view the influx of hundreds of millions of dollars in unregulated "soft money" into the election system as a corrupting influence upon the democratic...

<p>Less than two weeks before the Supreme Court hears arguments on Sept. 8 regarding the constitutionality of the provisions of last year's campaign-finance-reform legislation, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued its summary of January-June hard-money contributions to federally registered political-party committees. That six-month period represents the first official fundraising tally since national political parties were banned from raising soft money by the McCain-Feingold bill.</p>

Democrats are poised to reap the benefits of soft-money contributions next year, even though the new campaign finance law bans candidates for federal office from raising such unlimited money directly. Republicans, who have dominated other aspects of fundraising so far in this election cycle, have seen one of their highly touted soft-money fundraising operations bog down in controversy and, as a result, unable to collect any donations. Internal Revenue Service records show that allies of the Democratic Party have set up a significantly greater number of large soft-money funds than have comparable GOP allies. As a result, such traditional Democratic...

Hillary's Hollywood flimflam manMichelle Malkin (archive) June 20, 2003 | Print | SendIf Hillary Rodham Clinton is so smart, so savvy, so razor sharp, how did she allow celebrity scam artist Aaron Tonken to dupe her and her husband?And if she denies being duped -- nobody can pull the wool over those steely blue eyes -- then what exactly did Hillary know about Tonken's fraudulent charity schemes and when did she know it?Federal investigators are now probing Tonken's involvement with a $1 million Hollywood political event for Hillary's 2000 Senate campaign, according to the Los Angeles Times. Earlier this week,...

Rep. Darrell Issa's bankrolling of the recall drive against Gov. Gray Davis is emerging as one of the first test cases of the sweeping new federal campaign finance law. A Davis ally has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging that the Vista Republican is raising money for the recall campaign in violation of the law known as McCain-Feingold. Raquelle De La Rocha, a Van Nuys lawyer and Davis appointee to the state Park and Recreation Commission, contends that Issa has broken the provision of the law that bars federal officeholders from raising "soft money" campaign contributions. Issa...

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) will tell members of Congress Thursday that they are free to attend soft-money fundraisers for state and local candidates, despite the new campaign finance law that bars them from accepting such funds themselves. The FEC move, spelling out what is permissible and what is not, is aimed at clearing up what has become a source of concern and confusion for many lawmakers. During the April recess, many local fundraising dinners, barbeques, and coffee gatherings are missing once-familiar sights: politicians back from Washington working the crowd to remind constituents about their accomplishments in the nation’s capital....

washingtonpost.com Democrats Go to Bat With 2 StrikesBush Fundraising, Loss of Soft Money Hurt Party for '04 By Thomas B. Edsall Washington Post Staff WriterSunday, January 12, 2003; Page A04 Democratic presidential candidates and party officials gearing up for the 2004 election face two daunting facts:First, the sustained two-year effort by the party's national, senatorial and congressional campaign committees to strengthen "hard money" fundraising did not succeed in lessening their dependence on "soft money," which no longer is legal. Instead, the Democratic committees in the 2002 elections were even more dependent on soft money -- which national parties could raise...

Attorney challenges soft money reporting REQUIREMENT: Ken Jacobus asks court for injunction against new APOC rule. By Tom Kizzia Anchorage Daily News (Published: January 4, 2003) A new state rule requiring Alaska's political parties to disclose their sources and uses of so-called soft campaign money came under attack in court this week from the Libertarian Party and a lawyer with ties to the Republican Party. Lawyer Ken Jacobus asked the state Superior Court to block the new regulation, which was adopted by the Alaska Public Offices Commission in November after a record outpouring of unregulated soft-money ads in the state's...

Democrats and Republicans are accused of hatching "multiple schemes" to "evade and violate the soft money and disclosure provisions" of the McCain/Feingold campaign finance law that went into effect earlier this month, according to a complaint filed Thursday with the Federal Elections Commission by three political watchdog groups. The complaint alleges that a new political organization launched by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) dubbed the Leadership Forum "constitutes an illegal scheme to raise and spend soft money in violation of the new law." As for the Democrats, the complaint alleges that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has similarly set...

Both parties have asked the Federal Election Commission for an expedited ruling on whether they can use soft money to fund post-election recount efforts in the wake of the new campaign finance law that takes effect Nov. 6. The FEC has always had limited jurisdiction in the gray area of recounts, which are not considered federal elections and therefore are not subject to any sort of federal contribution limits or normal reporting requirements for federal committees. But the timing of the new campaign finance law, which takes effect this week, could create a nightmare for candidates in close races depending...

The passage of the most sweeping campaign finance measure in a generation has set off an explosion of fund-raising for the November elections that is likely to pump more than twice as much unregulated money into Congressional races as the last midterm campaign four years ago. Advertisement The McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, passed in March, bars national political parties and federal candidates from having anything to do with raising and spending soft money. Each party solicits such money, often in checks of $100,000 or more, from labor unions, corporations, trade associations, trial lawyers and wealthy individuals. But lawmakers delayed putting...

<p>WASHINGTON — The presidential election is two years away, but voters in key states can expect to hear a lot from prospective candidate Sen. John Edwards in the next two months.</p> <p>The political action committee (PAC) run by the North Carolina Democrat has $2.5 million in "soft money" — the unregulated contributions that will become illegal to raise or spend as of Election Day on Nov. 5. From now until then, he must spend it all.</p>

Some of the biggest names in Republican and Democratic circles are establishing new groups to collect and spend the unlimited political donations that are supposed to be curbed by the recent campaign finance law. White House political operatives, high-profile lobbyists, former aides of President Bill Clinton and staffers at the Democratic and Republican senatorial campaign committees are setting up tax-exempt organizations to raise and spend "soft money." That term refers to the large sums collected from corporations, unions, trade groups and individuals outside the normal limits on donations to federal campaigns. One of the new organizations, Progress for America, is...

Senator Hillary Clinton, who has attacked President Bush in the corporate corruption scandals, has at least one close connection with people who are in deep trouble because of the alleged corporate funny money games they've been playing while pumping cash into her campaign coffers. Sam Waskal, the recently indicted CEO of ImClone, for example, gave the New York Democrat $27,000 which she refuses to return. Waksal, indicted for insider trading, bank fraud and obstruction of justice, has been one of Hillary's financial angels - she's been the number one recipient of his generosity, according to the New York Post's ace...

<p>On radio and TV, a growing number of ads are beseeching the public to thank or spank a particular candidate.</p> <p>What's noteworthy about all of those ads? The candidates claim to have had nothing to do with them.</p> <p>In Missouri, most of the ads target either Sen. Jean Carnahan, a Democrat, or her likely Republican rival, former Rep. Jim Talent.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON—Steven Kirsch is a California high-tech executive with no family roots or business interests in Missouri.</p> <p>But Kirsch poured $300,000 into the state's Democratic Party coffers during the 2000 election cycle, making him the second largest soft-money donor to either state party.</p>

<p>Washington -- In the frantic final days before the 2000 presidential election, a wealthy Bay Area Internet executive not known for making big political contributions poured more than $1.2 million into Democratic party committees in key battleground states.</p> <p>Steve T. Kirsch, a founder of Infoseek and CEO of San Jose-based Propel, sent a total of $150,000 to New Mexico and Nevada on Oct. 26. The next day he spent $1.1 million to help Democrats in Arkansas, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri and Pennsylvania.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Republican National Committee, seeking to strengthen its case against the new campaign finance law, has subpoenaed the New Democrat Network and several labor unions for details on their fund-raising. The RNC subpoenas and deposition requests seek information on campaign ads the New Democrat Network has run, how and when it solicits contributions, its top donors and communication between the political action committee and federal officeholders, include any lobbying. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee, helped found the PAC five years ago to promote the ideas of centrist, pro-business Democrats. The RNC requests...

EXPLAINING ‘SOFT MONEY’ “Soft money” refers to the unlimited contributions that labor unions, corporations and individuals can give to the political parties. Although there is no limit on the amount of soft money a donor can give, soft money contributions must be reported to the Federal Election Commission. The top soft money donor in the 2000 campaign was the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a labor union, which gave $5.9 million to the Democrats.Although soft money is ostensibly to be used for party-building and get-out-the-vote efforts, some of it has been used to pay for TV and...

<p>Democratic fund-raising groups are getting ready to reap the unlimited soft-money donations that their party will be unable to accept when the new campaign finance reforms take effect after the November elections.</p> <p>These groups, along with those on the Republican side, will become what campaign analysts call "the new miniparties" that will take over the party-building and issue-promotion activities that the parties have long financed with big soft money contributions from business, labor unions and other wealthy campaign donors.</p>

They were strong supporters of the campaign finance bill that banned those terrible and corrupting soft money contributions, but Sen. John Edwards (d-NC) and his colleague Sen. John Kerry are raising all they can get their hands on while the getting is still good. Both senators voted for the McCain Feingold campaign finance reform bill which they thoughtfully arranged would not go into effect until after the November congressional elections. As NewsMax.com reported Thursday, the Democratic party has gone all out in pursuit of soft money while it's still legal, and both Kerry and Edwards have enthusiastically joined the hunt...

By John Whitesides WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican National Committee (news - web sites) brought in a record $31.7 million in the year's first quarter while its Democratic equivalent raised $26 million, but Democrats lagged badly in regulated "hard-money" donations that can be spent directly on campaigns. Republicans raised $26.3 million and the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) about $9 million in the "hard-money" funds that will become the currency of campaigns under a new law that takes effect after the Nov. 5 mid-term congressional elections. That law, signed by President Bush (news - web sites) last week,...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  A billionaire media mogul has given the Democratic National Committee $7 million, believed to be the single largest donation ever to a political party.</p> <p>The DNC also recently received a $5 million check from Hollywood producer Steve Bing that would otherwise have held the record.</p>

While Democrats launched a final push Monday for legislation to limit the influence of big-money donors, party officials said one contributor has given several million dollars this year to help build a national Democratic headquarters. The gift, when confirmed in federal disclosure reports due to become public next month, will apparently be the largest of the past decade to either of the major national parties. In an interview Monday, Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe declined to name the donor or specify the amount, saying that a report will make the information public soon. No other details about the gift...