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 Recent commentary from National Journal: Social Studies: In Geneva, the U.N.'s Successor May Be Testing Its Wings (March 24, 2004) Since 1996, a handful of foreign-policy wonks have been kicking around the idea of a "democracy caucus" at the U.N. Now it looks as if it might actually happen. By Jonathan Rauch. Legal Affairs: How Spain Could Bring Bush and Kerry Together (March 24, 2004) What happened in Spain is a disaster for the United States—so much so that George W. Bush and John Kerry need to issue a national-unity declaration. By Stuart Taylor Jr. Media: The Wallflower Knows (March 24, 2004) C-SPAN has downsized Washington, revealing it to be a city of mere people, not giants. By William Powers. Legal Affairs: Bush Has The Wrong Remedy to Court-Imposed Gay Marriage (March 16, 2004) There are ways to get the courts out of the gay-marriage business without tying the hands of future voting majorities who may see gay marriage as good for us all. By Stuart Taylor Jr. Media: Be Not Wicked (March 16, 2004) Wickedness used to be a core value of American journalism and great newspapers. But not any more. By William Powers. Political Pulse: The Search for a Winning Combo (March 16, 2004) A running mate can help in three ways: geography, demography, and message. By William Schneider. Wealth of Nations: The Jobless Recovery: A Cause for Concern, Not Alarm (March 16, 2004) It's fair to ask whether the Bush administration has done as much as it could to cushion workers from the economy's growing pains. And the answer is no. By Clive Crook. More from National Journal. |
Political Pulse 
Loophole AdvocacyIt looks as if many Democrats have changed their minds about wanting to get soft money out of politics by William Schneider .... "I'm an advocate of campaign finance reform," Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in 2002. Most Democrats once said the same. And President Clinton signed a 2000 law requiring disclosure of the names of contributors to independent political groups. "This legislation closes a special-interest loophole that allowed so-called '527' organizations to raise unlimited funds to influence elections without disclosing where the money came from," Clinton declared. Good news for Democrats: There's still a big loophole, one that they might have to depend on between now and the Democratic National Convention in July. Republicans have been far more successful than Democrats in raising "hard money," contributions whose size and sources are limited by law. "We have over 600,000 donors that have given an average of $117 in contributions," said Ben Ginsberg, legal adviser for President Bush's re-election campaign. In the 2000 election cycle, Republicans raised $466 million in hard money while Democrats raised $275 million. Democrats have been able to match Republicans only in "soft money," unlimited and unregulated donations that tend to come from wealthy individuals and interest groups. The soft-money totals for 2000: Republicans $250 million, Democrats $245 million. Soft money used to go to the political parties to spend on whatever they thought would help their candidates. A national party dipped into it when its nominee faced a situation such as the one the Democrats' de facto nominee is in. Kerry "is pretty much out of money," said Larry Noble of the Center for Responsive Politics. "In the past, the political party would have stepped in with soft money and done the ads between now and the convention." The campaign finance law passed in 2002 bans political parties from raising soft money. But independent campaign organizations called "527s"—named after the provision in the Internal Revenue Code that gives them tax-exempt status—can still run ads, as long as their efforts are not coordinated with the campaigns. Noble says, "What you're seeing on the Democratic side is a number of groups being set up in essence to shadow what the Democratic Party would normally do with soft money. They're trying to do it with 527 organizations." The MoveOn.org Voter Fund, for example, ran an ad saying, "When it comes to choosing between corporate values and family values, face it, George Bush is not on our side." And the Media Fund ran an ad saying, "George Bush's priorities are eroding the American dream. It's time to take our country back from corporate greed and make America work for every American." The campaign finance law says that any group that tries to "influence" federal elections must register as a political committee, and its fundraising must be limited and regulated. Aren't the Media Fund and MoveOn.org trying to influence a federal election? The Federal Election Commission says maybe not. "The FEC took the position that, if the 527 was not spending money on 'express advocacy,' namely, communications urging [people to vote] for or against a candidate, the committee could operate under the radar screen," said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., a sponsor of the 2002 law. In other words, the groups can run ads financed by soft money as long as they stop short of saying, "Vote against George Bush" or "Vote for John Kerry." Isn't that a loophole? Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., thinks so: "As my 15-year-old son would say ... 'Duh.' They're engaged in partisan political activity, so therefore they should be regulated." Feingold agreed: "The FEC must not bless a new circumvention of election laws so soon after we closed the last loophole." Critics of the 527s argue that those organizations should have to pay for their ads only with hard money, the kind that Democrats have trouble raising. Defenders see Republican efforts to ban the soft-money ads as moves to stifle dissent. "Instead of engaging [opponents] on the issues or trying to out-organize them, they are seeking to use the FEC to crush their involvement in the political process," protested Linda Chavez Thompson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO. Some Democrats who once accused the GOP of blocking reform are now exploiting the 527 loophole, which they claim levels the playing field. "Oh, give me a sponge for the tears!" said Harold Ickes of the Media Fund. "Republicans talking about how we [Democrats] are going to have more money! Give me a break." Last week, Bush opened his ad campaign with a charge: "John Kerry's plan: To pay for new government spending, raise taxes by at least $900 billion." The Kerry campaign used scarce hard-money resources to return fire: "John Kerry has never called for a $900 billion tax increase." But the Kerry campaign can't afford to keep doing that for long. Independent groups will have to carry the Kerry message. Don't conservatives also have 527s? Sure. One of them, the Club for Growth, ran ads against former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean in Iowa and New Hampshire. But the Bush campaign is so awash in cash that it does not have to rely on 527s. Democrats were the most vocal about wanting to get soft money out of politics. Many have changed their minds. Meanwhile, the FEC must decide whether the 527 ads are legal. When will it decide? Probably sometime this summer—too late to make any difference in the 2004 contest, because both presidential campaigns will be flush with federal funds after their conventions.
What do you think? Discuss this article in the Politics & Society conference of Post & Riposte. More from National Journal. More on politics and society in Atlantic Unbound and The Atlantic Monthly. William Schneider is the Cable News Network's senior political analyst. He is also a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times, National Journal, and The Atlantic Monthly. His column appears every week in National Journal, a weekly magazine covering politics and government published in Washington, D.C. For information on National Journal Group publications, see NationalJournal.com. Copyright © 2003 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved. | [an error occurred while processing this directive] | ||
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