527 Groups

It appears that the President wants the 527 groups to go away.

Among the top 50 527 groups since 2000 (the Republican groups tend to appear lower in the list. They're having trouble raising money) the ones supporting Republicans include the Club for Growth, the College Republican National Committee, the Bush-Cheney Recount Fund, GOPAC, the Republican Leadership Council, the Republican Leadership Coalition, the National Federation of Republican Women, Americans for a Republican Majority (Tom Delay), the Republican State Leadership Committee, Keep Our Majority (Hastert) and less obviously, from the current top 50,Floridians United for a Stronger Tomorrow (that'll be an easy one for Our Fearless Leader to take care of - it's associated with his brother), the Citizens for Better Medicare Action Fund, and (by 2 to 1) the National Association of Realtors.

Arkansans for the 21st Century was founded to kill a gambling bill in Arkansas.

A number of the top 50 for the last four years are not currently in the top 50, and most of them are Republican groups. And why is that?

But even as first-time large donors are entering the fray, others who gave to 527s in previous election cycles appear to be biding their time.

Roughly one out of four of the 115 largest donors to 527s since 2000 have yet to make a single contribution during the current election cycle, according to the Center's research. These 28 donors gave a total of almost $10.3 million to 527 committees between 2000 and 2002.

That may be due in part to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform ActÑotherwise known as McCain-FeingoldÑwhich forbids federal candidates and national parties from raising unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and labor unions. Since lawmakers and parties used 527 committees to raise the kinds of funds now banned by BCRA, the law effectively put many 527 committees run by federal lawmakers out of business. In fact, only 13 of the 69 IRS-regulated committees to which these 28 donors gave are still raising money.

Most of these 28 donors, however, have found other ways to contribute to the political system: 23 of them have donated a total of more than $1 million to FEC-regulated committees during the last two years.

If you look at all advocacy groups not directly affiliated with a campaign, including 501(c)3 (charitable) and (c)4 (political) groups,(a handy definition of the different types of soft money setups is here) you'll find some of the missing 527 groups, and the numbers look a lot nicer for the Republicans.

501(c)3 and (c)4groups cost more, but they have certain other advantages

Most 527 groups are not required to file regular disclosure forms with the FEC, but they are required to file with the states in which they are located or the Internal Revenue Service, and they must identify their donors. That is not true for other sorts of non-profit groups, including the kind so far favored by Republicans. Those groups, referred to as 501(c)3s and 501(c)4s, face stiffer taxes than 527s but are not required to disclose their funding sources.

The groups being formed by Republicans have anodyne names like Progress for America, which was founded by Bush strategist Tony Feather, the National Committee for a Responsible Senate, founded by the law firm representing the Bush-Cheney campaign, and the American Taxpayer Alliance, which Perrin helps to run with Scott Reed, a Republican lobbyist and campaign strategist. Ed Gillespie, the head of the Republican National Committee, founded one such group, 21st Century Energy, to run advertisements supporting the President's energy policy in key Congressional districts two years ago. According to press reports, that group was funded by several of Gillespie's lobbying clients, including Daimler Chrysler and Enron.

Finally, corporations and their national trade groups are poised to push millions in soft money through the non-profit loopholes via so-called voter education campaigns. In January, Tom Donahue, the chair of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, announced his group will direct "unprecedented resources to 33 of the most competitive congressional races" in an effort to "determine whether the next Congress is pro- or anti-growth." Groups like the National Association of Manufacturers, long a source of large soft money contributions to Republican campaigns, have announced similar efforts.

which is not to say that they plan to give up on 527 groups altogether

Before the FEC action made it clear rules would not change in this election cycle, Republicans in Congress and the Bush administration strongly criticized 527s focused on defeating President Bush this November, saying they were violating campaign finance laws by accepting substantial donations of unregulated [soft] money. After the FEC decision, BCRA sponsor Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT) joined House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Republican Congressional Committee Chair Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) in a statement accusing groups sympathetic to the Democrats of operating "with no regard for the law" and predicting that groups sympathetic to Republicans would emerge. This was seen as a signal to Republican donors, including corporations, who had been waiting to see what action the FEC would take, to give to groups like the Club for Growth and Progress for America.

Bush-Cheney campaign chair Marc Racicot and Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ed Gillespie issued a statement predicting "The 2004 elections will not be a free for all." The Hill newspaper reported that the Republican switch began before the FEC decision, when Ken Mehlman, manager of the Bush-Cheney campaign, met privately with lobbyists on May 11 and predicted an immediate fundraising push by 527 groups sympathetic to Republicans. One attendee joked, "On Friday, don't pick up your phone because they're going to be asking for money."

Two major Republican leaning groups, the Leadership Forum and Progress for America, are stretching the limits of what is allowed under BCRA since the FEC decision. According to The Hill the Leadership Forum, run by the former chief of staff to House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX), will feature House Speaker Hastert and Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) at events this summer. BCRA prohibits federal officeholders from raising soft money, but FEC rules allow them to appear and speak generally without making a fundraising pitch.

Progress for America, a 501(c)(4) organization, announced plans to become a 527 group so that it can engage in more election-related activity. They plan on purchasing advertising praising Bush in 18 battleground states, and have hired a direct-mail specialist, Tom Synhorst, who is a partner in a firm that has done $1.8 million in business with the Bush-Cheney campaign. The firm, Feather, Larson & Synhorst, said Synhorst will work in "silo", and not participate in the firm's work for Bush or the RNC.

The Club for Growth was operating prior to the FEC decision, sponsoring ads praising President Bush in five battleground states. They have raised $9 million so far, and plan to spend $10 million on issue ads in the presidential race. Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist announced plans to create a separate segregated fund with a goal of raising $6 million by election day. Americans for a Better Country also announced ambitious fundraising plans, but reportedly has not raised any money yet.

The Republicans want unaffilitated groups out of fundraising?

You first.

o bliss o glee o joy for all my former woes a thousand times repaid

White House acknowledges coordinating activities with a 527 group, and Bush/Cheney campaign caught handing out Swift Boat flyers which _actually state that a rally is being jointly run by the campaign and the Swift Vote organization_.

The FEC doesn't like that.

happy happy joy joy

federalism? I do not know of this federalism

A big-timey Republican lawyer from Washington went down to Louisiana t0 try and keep the Alexander suit in a federal court, despite the fact that a federal judge said there were no federal issues involved

A lawsuit challenging U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander's last-minute switch to the Republican Party in the 5th District congressional race was bounced back to state court on Friday by a federal judge.

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Spawned by Democrats' fury at the congressman's sudden switch, the suit seeks to have Alexander either kicked off the November ballot, or be forced to run as a Democrat.

First filed in a state court at the southern tip of Alexander's sprawling district, the congressman's lawyers pushed the lawsuit into federal court last week, saying his constitutional rights were at issue.

But Friday, a U.S. judge here rejected Alexander's arguments, saying the suit raised no federal issues. U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola invoked individual states' authority in election matters, and suggested the case fell squarely into that category.

The suit now goes back to a state court in Plaquemine, in Iberville Parish, where it will be tried Monday.

Alexander's conversion was quickly embraced by national Republicans two weeks ago, and Friday, a Washington lawyer used by the Republican National Committee in high-profile cases argued that the suit should stay in federal court.

Lawyer Bobby Burchfield argued that Alexander was acting as a federal official when he switched, so he had a right, like other federal officials, to have his case heard in federal court.

Burchfield also represents House Majority Leader Tom Delay in Texas litigation challenging a big, Republican-tilted redistricting there, and he also helped argue the Republicans' case in the 2000 Florida election dispute that led to the Supreme Court decision halting the recount. He has argued for the RNC in attacking the new campaign finance law as well.

Alexander also came up with yet another of his reasons for leaving the Democrats (so far, we've had not comfortable with his party, afraid of the other Democrat who qualified and wanting his constituents to know where he stands on the issues).

I really really like this one, though. Alexander switched parties because he could have never imagined that the Democrats would become pro-choice and support gun control.

yick.

The story behind the resignation of Deal Hudson as Our Fearless Leader's Catholic pointman is even ickier than you thought.

As editor of Crisis magazine, Hudson has claimed that abusive priests are all homosexuals, because they are known (by him) to be sexual predators. He also says (he contains multitudes) that married men are far more likely to be predators than priests.

Hudson is, of course, a married man.

An 18-year-old Fordham freshman in 1994, Poppas had been in-and-out of foster homes from the age of seven. The fourth of nine children, her mother an alcoholic and her father a troubled and disabled Vietnam veteran, Poppas had survived poverty and traumas.

In early February 1994, she approached Hudson with a question. He suggested, she said, that they go to his office and discuss it. "I told him everything about me," Poppas recalled in a four-page document she provided to Fordham administrators in May 1994. "He knew I was … without parents, severely depressed, and even suicidal. I discussed with him why I had lost my faith in God, in humanity, and in myself. He was extremely attentive and genuinely concerned."

On Feb. 15, "Fat Tuesday," Poppas again visited Hudson at his office. Hudson invited her, she said, to join him and a group of NYU students at a bar in the West Village. Later that night, Hudson and Poppas engaged in a sexual encounter that is recounted graphically in a four-page description she provided Fordham University. Her memo is reported on in detail in the story elsewhere on this Web site.

Approximately two months later Poppas confided the episode to a faculty member who advised her to inform Fordham's administration about Hudson's conduct.

On April 28, 1994, Poppas met with Jesuit Fr. Joseph McShane (now the university's president). McShane was sympathetic and understanding, Poppas recalled. He told her the university would deal with Hudson once the semester concluded, said Poppas.

Poppas was asked to write a detailed description of what had transpired between her and Hudson. On May 9, she submitted that document to the university counsel.

The semester concluded, Poppas met with university president Fr. Joseph O'Hare. He asked her, she recalled, how the situation could be rectified. "One of us should have to leave," responded Poppas, "and it shouldn't be me." O'Hare told her, she recalled, that he would take care of the situation.

"Sexual harassment is not tolerated at Fordham University," the school's assistant vice president for public affairs, Elizabeth Schmalz, said in a July 2004 statement provided to NCR. "It subverts the mission of the University and threatens the well-being, educational experiences and careers of students, faculty and staff. It is especially disturbing in the context of a teacher-student relationship."

Continued Schmalz: "Fordham followed its policy rigorously in this case and initiated an investigation into the matter upon receipt of the student's complaint. The professor later surrendered his tenure at Fordham."

Nice. Not just a student, an emotionally-disturbed suicidal student who went to him for guidance.

Very nice.

from Kos by way of Off the Kuff

sigh

why I really, really, really want to be Dwight or a reasonable facsimile thereof when and if I grow up

It seems obvious that the President was trying to trap Mr. Kerry by having the press ask him for a yes or no answer to that question, with prepared attack lines regardless of which anwser Kerry chose. A small political tempest ensued but failed to capture my interest.

It's about OFL's shifting explanations of why we went to war, by the way.

woops

it's not inside baseball any more

Kerry escalated the battle over the Swift Boat ads on Thursday by charging that the group was "a front for the Bush campaign" funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor in Texas, Bush's home state.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan described the Republican donor, Bob Perry, as "a supporter" of the president, and acknowledged Perry's personal ties with Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove.

"But that still shouldn't be used to draw any connection there because we have not been involved in this ad whatsoever," McClellan told reporters near Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch.

McClellan said Kerry was "angry" about the advertising campaign, adding: "His losing his cool shouldn't be an excuse to falsely attack the president."

Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot said in an interview on CNN that Kerry looked "wild-eyed" talking about it.

Kerry campaign spokesman David Wade responded tersely: "Maybe if George Bush had seen combat up close, his hired gun mouthpiece wouldn't be so flip about the dishonest and dishonorable attack funded by the President's Texas pals."

Kerry aides compared Bush's new line of attack against Kerry to the campaign mounted by Bush's allies in the 2000 Republican primary race to portray Sen. John McCain as too "unstable" and temperamental to be president.

The White House has declined to specifically condemn the Swift Boat commercials, and the group announced on Friday that it would launch a new round of television ads next week with spots in three states where Kerry has touted his military service.

The White House, instead, has challenged Kerry to join Bush in calling for an end to all ads funded by unrestricted donations, including those questioning Bush's service in the National Guard.

Kerry has condemned one of those ads, but McClellan says his campaign has actively fueled some of the attacks.

Over the last 12 months, groups favoring the Democrats have spent $63.5 million on ads attacking Bush, according to the Bush campaign, which filed its own FEC complaint earlier this year alleging "coordination" between Kerry and the left-leaning groups.

Perry has contributed $200,000 to Swift Boat Veterans, according to an analysis by Texans for Public Justice, a nonpartisan research organization that tracks money in Texas politics.

Records show Perry is also a long-time Bush supporter. He contributed $46,000 to Bush's 1994 and 1998 campaigns for Texas governor, and has contributed the maximum allowable $2,000 to Bush's current reelection.

Perry also worked with Rove as early as 1986 when Perry served as campaign treasurer for Republican gubernatorial candidate William Clements and Rove served as a campaign consultant and fundraiser, Texans for Public Justice said.

Perry was the largest single contributor to the Texas Republican Party during the 2002 election cycle, giving $905,000.

Good for them. If this thing is getting traction, let's splash the real story all over the Sunday news shows and newspapers.

With any luck, McCain will be making the rounds to reluctantly answer a few questions about what happened four years ago in SC.