APFN
Campaign Finance Reform: 527 Group Disclosure
Thu Dec 11 03:04:08 2003
64.140.158.44

Campaign Finance Reform: 527 Group Disclosure
http://www.mentata.com/ds/retrieve/congress/vote/VC107H5

This vote was on a motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 3991, the Taxpayer Protection and IRS Accountability Act of 2002. The bill contained a provision that would have reduced disclosure of campaign contributions to and expenditures of Section 527 political groups. 527 groups, which are established by politicians and interest groups, are chartered by the IRS and are designed to primarily influence elections. Failed (2/3 required): 205 Yea to 219 Nay.
http://www.mentata.com/ds/retrieve/congress/vote/VC107H5



CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL
Forward, NY - Dec 3, 2003
... Hertzberg, the Bronfman visiting professor of the humanities at New York University,
is involved with the Clergy Leadership Network, a so-called 527 group ...


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 360 to 420 million dollars [in soft money] to defeat a candidate for federal election.”

Gillespie’s public estimates, which he said were based on press accounts, track with similar figures that Republican soft-money groups have been privately circulating on K Street in recent weeks.

The Project for America (PFA), a 501(c)(4) group with close ties to Gillespie and the White House, arrived at an estimate of $328 million to $338 million of left-leaning soft money earlier in October. The PFA is also soliciting donations.

K Street sources said that groups like the PFA are using the $338 million figure to spur potential corporate donors to counteract what they fear will be an unprecedented level of soft money, even after last year’s Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act prohibited unlimited contributions to either national party.

The PFA shared its estimate with GOP operatives and lobbyists at a conference in October it sponsored to help Republican compete with Democrats in the soft-money contest. Speakers included Gillespie, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and Ken Mehlman, who will head President Bush’s reelection effort. The PFA did not respond
to repeated inquiries for comment.

But the PFA invitation to the conference warned that “it has become apparent that liberal special interest groups are at work.

“They are forming organizations whose single goal is to attack and defame the issue agenda of President George W. Bush.”

A breakdown of the PFA estimates shows that America Votes, a union-enviironmental umbrella group, plans to spend $250 million, including $52 million from the AFL-CIO and $75 million from Americans Coming Together (ACT).

Soros has pledged $10 million to ACT, a so-called 527 group run by Emily’s List President Ellen Malcolm, bringing ACT’s current pledges to $30 million — well on its way to the $75 million goal.

Also included under the America Votes rubric are unions such as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) ($16 million). Service Employees International Union ($4.2 million), the Sierra Club ($9.5 million) and the People for the American Way ($3.1 million).

Soros also has pledged an additional $5 million to the MoveOn voter fund, said Zack Exley, the group’s director. That organization has already raised $6 million in soft money toward its short-term goal of $10 million, said Exley. It has another soft money drive planned for the spring and summer.

Despite a welter of enthusiasm for Soros’s money, union operatives questioned any total figure above the $300 million.

“It looks like a classic case of double counting,” said Don Kaniewski, the Legislative and political director for Laborers’ International Union of North America, of the PFA’s estimates.

Another union source said, “Anything above $300 million seems awfully high to me. I just don’t see us getting there. We [would] like to be there, believe me.”

In the last two presidential cycles, when soft money could be raised directly by the parties, Democrats and Republicans both spent roughly $250 million, according to Steven Weiss, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP).

As a result of the finance reforms, which aimed to curb unlimited soft money donations, outside interest groups established 527s to gather money that was previously netted by the national committees for party building purposes.

But in one of the many unintended consequences of campaign finance reform, 527s are not monitored by the Federal Election Commission and need only to file tax disclosure form with the Internal Revenue Service every six months.
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Supreme Court Upholds Campaign Finance Reform
Clean Money, Clean Elections
A new kind of politics is taking root in America called Clean Money, Clean Elections (CMCE) campaign finance reform. CMCE reduces the influence of special interest money and provides a level playing field by offering qualified candidates a limited and equal amount of public funds. It's a bold, new experiment in campaign finance reform, seeking to restore democracy and the principle of one person, one vote.

If you're looking for real solutions to clean up the campaign finance mess in this country, you've come to the right place. We can show you what's wrong with the system and how you can help fix it. Please browse the site and dig into the information.

Click to find out how Clean Money, Clean Elections works
http://www.brook.edu/gs/cf/cf_hp.htm

The Lincoln Call
President Bush raised $49.5 million dollars over the last three months – more than all his Democratic opponents combined over the same period. At the same time, the Democratic presidential candidates are under pressure to prove their worth, not by the strength of their ideas but by the bulge in their bank accounts.

That’s why we started the “Lincoln Call: A Presidency Of, By, and For the People.” If you care about public policy on the auction block, and believe that America can’t preach democracy to the world, when we tolerate such a mockery of democracy here at home, sign the Lincoln Call. More...
http://lincolncall.pcactionfund.org

McCONNELL v. FEC UPDATE

Supreme Court Upholds All Major Provisions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
The Supreme Court today ruled on a 5-to-4 vote to uphold most provisions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. The Court upheld as constitutional the law's ban on soft money donations and the solicitation of such funds by federal candidates. An expanded definition of what constitutes political advertising also withstood Court scrutiny.
December 10, 2003

read a summary of the Court's holdings provided by the Campaign Legal Center
review the Supreme Court's syllabus
review the Supreme Court's opinions
http://www.brook.edu/gs/cf/cf_hp.htm