Daily Campaign Finance Reform thread-day 17

NY Times ^ | 12/27/03 | CARL HULSE / GLEN JUSTICE

[Valin]

Losing Crusade May Still Pay Dividends for a Senator

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 — Senator Mitch McConnell was such a determined opponent of the new campaign finance law that when the fight moved from Congress to the courts, he made certain the decisive case was titled McConnell vs. F.E.C.

Now, with the Supreme Court validating the campaign spending restrictions enforced by the Federal Election Commission in a ruling earlier this month, Mr. McConnell will remain strongly identified with the cause, but on the losing side.

That twist is not lost on advocates of restrictions on fund-raising and spending, who say the word "McConnell" will very likely stand for the case as much as for the lawmaker.

Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21 and a longtime adversary of Mr. McConnell, said: "I am going to talk for years now about how `McConnell' stands for the proposition that campaign finance laws protect against the appearance of corruption and do not restrict protected free speech."

While he may be disappointed by the defeat, Mr. McConnell, the Senate's second-ranking Republican, said he had no regrets about his crusade against proposals he said infringed on the First Amendment.

"This is something I believe deeply in," said Mr. McConnell, a conservative from Kentucky, who has devoted years to derailing efforts to restrict political fund-raising and spending.

As the public face of opposition to legislation that was often portrayed as a way to reduce the influence of moneyed interests, Mr. McConnell took a drubbing. Some proponents of the law, championed by Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, called him "Darth Vader" and "Public Enemy No. 1."

"He wore it as a badge of honor," said Senator Robert F. Bennett, Republican of Utah, a chief ally.

In his role, Mr. McConnell was not only expressing his own view but also carrying the ball for fellow senators who shared his antipathy for the campaign finance changes but were less willing to get out in front on the politically tricky issue.

That work, as well as other tasks he has undertaken as the majority whip, could pay dividends because Mr. McConnell is viewed as a probable candidate to try to succeed Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee as Republican leader. Dr. Frist has indicated he does not intend to seek re-election in 2006, setting the stage for a contest to succeed him.

"When you look down the road, he seems to be the guy," one senior Republican Senate official said, though he said others were certain to seek the post. "He is very good at working behind the scenes to help members."

That is an apt way of describing Mr. McConnell, 61, who has long been viewed as a tough inside player in Congress and in his home state, where he has been instrumental in building the Republican Party. First elected in 1984, he is also a force in Washington at large, given that he is half of a power couple by virtue of his marriage to Elaine L. Chao, the labor secretary.

Mr. McConnell, who is smart and not shy about letting it show, is considered by many colleagues to be among the savviest tacticians in the Senate and a relentless opponent, a trait that may have sprung from his battle with polio as a youngster.

Last year, he was elected by his Republican colleagues to be the No. 2 to Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Republican Leader. When Mr. Lott ran into a political buzz saw over comments about Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, it eventually fell to Mr. McConnell to deliver the news to Mr. Lott that it was time to step aside.

Top Senate aides say Mr. McConnell has been a valuable assistant to Dr. Frist, using his own years in the Senate to fill in the gaps for the less experienced majority leader. He has also handled some of the dirty work, defending Dr. Frist against Democrats who accused him of mismanagement and dueling with the Democratic leadership on the floor. He was sidelined for a period earlier this year by heart surgery but seems to have rebounded.

Mr. McConnell has also sought to alter his own image, abandoning his longtime opposition to federal restrictions on tobacco advertising in exchange for a proposal to aid tobacco growers.

Yet campaign finance has been his signature issue, but as far as the McCain-Feingold law is concerned, Mr. McConnell acknowledges that fight is lost.

"The Supreme Court has spoken," he said. "They are the last word."

The outcome for Mr. McConnell drew sympathy from former Senator James L. Buckley of New York, a conservative whose name graced a previous campaign finance ruling, Buckley vs. Valeo. That 1976 decision struck down part of the Watergate-era campaign finance restrictions.

"The Supreme Court treated me much more kindly," Mr. Buckley said. "He tried to do his duty as a senator and a citizen. He failed, but he should take pride in the effort."

Though Mr. McConnell lost at the court, advocates of the law credit him with putting up a battle. They said he was simply overwhelmed by a shift in public, legislative and legal opinion on the issue.

Mr. McConnell disputes the idea that the new law will reduce the flow of money into politics, and he said that one of the chief consequences would be to weaken the national political parties and give more power to independent organizations.

"There won't be any less speech or money spent," Mr. McConnell said. "Dramatically more will be spent, just in a different way."

And while he has no concrete plans concerning campaign finance, he has no doubt the issue will resurface even as some people try to rehabilitate the system for public financing of presidential campaigns.

"The issue is never over," Mr. McConnell said. "You are talking about the ability of people to speak in a free society, and political speech, which is at the core of the First Amendment. People want to have their say."

[Valin]

"The issue is never over," Mr. McConnell said. "You are talking about the ability of people to speak in a free society, and political speech, which is at the core of the First Amendment. People want to have their say."

And all gods people said...AMEN!

[Valin]

Yesterdays thread.

Election finance reformers take aim at '08 campaign

Washington- Rescuing an enfeebled presidential election funding system before 2008 by enlarging the pot of matching funds for primaries and giving the money to candidates earlier is emerging as the next goal of finance reformers.

Fresh off a victory this month in the Supreme Court, the lawmakers who wrote the limits on campaign donations and restric tions for the 2004 elections see an urgent need in shoring up the system for providing government money to campaigns.

The four men linked by years of work on campaign spending are Sens. John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, and Reps. Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut, and Marty Meehan, Democrat of Massachusetts.

Congress could take up several proposals seen by their sponsors as the next step after what is known as the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms. They include rules for fund raising by special-interest groups, tax credits for smaller donations and other measures to either lift or further tighten restrictions on political contributions.

The crisis in presidential funding was accentuated by Democratic candidates Howard Dean and John Kerry deciding, with President Bush, to reject public money for their 2004 primary campaigns rather than be fettered by spending limits.

The 5-4 Supreme Court ruling supporting the McCain-Feingold ban on corporate and union donations to political parties reflected the congressional divisions on spending. But there was little disagreement with the opinion of Justices John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O'Connor, writing for the majority, that "money, like water, will always find an outlet," and that Congress would have to respond again.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, the leading opponent of the McCain-Feingold measure, said there was little appetite for any quick return to the issue.

He cited what he said was "campaign finance fatigue" and "buyers' remorse" - the discovery by Democrats who voted for McCain-Feingold that the legislation was complicating their efforts to keep pace with Republicans in raising money.

The McCain-Feingold-Shays- Meehan proposal would increase from one-to-one to four-to-one the public money match for individual contributions to a primary candidate that are $250 or less. It would increase the overall primary spending limit for each candidate from $45 million to $75 million.

It would also move up the date when candidates can start collecting public money to help pay for their campaigns - from Jan. 1 of the election year to July 1 of the previous year.

© 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1046873/posts


Note if you would like to be on or off this Campaign Finance Reform list please let me know.

[Valin]

Remember better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

Hugh & Series, Critical & Pulled by JimRob
Special to FreeRepublic | 17 December 2003 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)


This is nothing like the usual whine by someone whose post was pulled. JimRob pulled my previous thread for a good reason. "If direct fund-raising were permitted on FR, it would soon be wall-to-wall fund-raising."


So, let's start again correctly. This is about civil disobedience to support the First Amendment and challenge the TERRIBLE CFR decision of the Supreme Court to uphold a terrible law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush.


All who are interested in an in-your-face challenge to the 30- and 60-day ad ban in the Campaign Finance "Reform" Act, please join in. The pattern is this: I'm looking for at least 1,000 people to help the effort. I will run the ad, and risk fines or jail time to make it work -- AND get national support.


But there should be NO mentions of money in this thread, and not in Freepmail either. This is JimRob's electronic home, and we should all abide his concerns.


Put your comments here. Click on the link above, and send me your e-mail addresses. I will get back to you by regular e-mail with the practical details.


This CAN be done. This SHOULD be done. But it MUST be done in accord with JimRob's guidelines.


Fair enough?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1042394/posts

[DustyMoment]

I have real concerns why Presdiential campaign funding is so important to McCain at a time when we are at war, still have a soft and vulnerable economy and millions of Americans out of work.

It begins to appear to me that McCain, like his Democrat buddies, is re-living the 2000 election that he could not win. Had Bush not gotten the nod at the RNC convention and McCain gotten it instead, I believe that, today, we would be complaining about the policies of President Gore instead of the policies of President Bush. Sad to say, however, I think that we would still be enjoying all of our Constitutional rights under a President Gore and that CFR would never have been passed.

If this is the measure of compassionate conservativism, Bush can stuff it. I want my rights restored and I want McCain out of the suppressing of rights business. Let the sorry RINO begin enjoying retirement - the sooner the better.

[TASMANIANRED]

I am proud to be represented by Senator Mitch. If the Senate held more principaled men like this instead of the go along to get along types this country would be one heck of a lot better.

[Valin]

I have real concerns why Presdiential campaign funding is so important to McCain at a time when we are at war

I've heard that he has a real love affair with the camera, and this is a good way for him to get facetime on tv and have nice thing wrote about him in the Washington Post.

[Valin]

Let him know. We need to let those on the the side of the angels that we support them.

A couple of dollars wouldn't hurt either.

[The_Eaglet]

Thomas Sowell has another article that reminds us of the Constitution's prohibition of Congress abridging the freedom of speech (Click here to view article).

[DustyMoment]

Sowell is always worth stopping everything else to read. Thanks for including me.

[The_Eaglet]

McCain-Feingold(from the blogasphere) -Daily Campaign Finance Reform thread-day 27