Group arises to boost Dems' chances in 2004
By Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — A group of powerful Democrats, including labor union chiefs and wealthy donors, is forming a political organization to raise money and improve the party's chances in the 2004 presidential election and other federal, state and local races.
The group, Grassroots Democrats, won't be formally launched until later in the summer, but it has rented offices, hired key staff and begun organizing to raise millions of dollars.
The group plans to forgo the glitz of TV advertising. Instead, it will focus on shoe-leather politics: identifying voters friendly to Democrats, registering them to vote and getting them to the polls, said Joe Carmichael, who is stepping down as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee to co-chair the new group.
"We're going to raise money and provide state parties with expertise on strategy and ideas," Carmichael said. "We know there's a need out there."
His co-chair is Morton Bahr, Communications Workers of America president. Also on the board is Gerald McEntee, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) president. Other board members from outside the labor movement will be announced in coming weeks, Carmichael said.
The group is driven in part by the fear that Democrats will be swamped next year by an unprecedented Republican fundraising wave, led by President Bush's re-election campaign. Bush, his wife Laura and Vice President Cheney are holding 15 fundraising events this month, and the campaign is expected to raise upwards of $200 million by Election Day.
Grassroots Democrats is just the latest of several groups being formed by partisans in both major parties who believe that functions the parties once performed will wither because of a new ban on unlimited "soft money" contributions. The two parties collected nearly $500 million for the 2002 elections and dispensed much of it to state affiliates for issue ads and get-out-the-vote efforts.
With that money source shut off, the new groups aim to fill in for the parties. They will collect the millions in corporate, union and individual donations the parties can no longer take. They can legally do that only if they are completely independent from the parties.
Both the Republican and Democratic parties have spun off their governors associations as independent groups so they will continue to be able to raise unregulated donations. Dozens of new groups have been formed but have been slow to win donor acceptance in the uncertain legal atmosphere of the new law, said Kent Cooper, who tracks the groups for his PoliticalMoneyLine Web site. The law is awaiting Supreme Court review.
Carmichael tried last year to form a spinoff group called the Democratic State Party Organization, but it collapsed after reform groups complained to the Federal Election Commission that it was an attempt to circumvent the new law. This time, he said, the group is truly independent of the party. It is set up as a non-profit under section 527 of IRS rules.
Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, a group that pushed for the soft-money ban, said reformers will be watching the new group to make sure it stays within the law.
Among the new group's services will be helping state Democratic parties raise a new category of soft money that is permitted under the law for get-out-the-vote work in connection with federal elections, Carmichael said. The law allows donors to give up to $10,000 a year to each state or local party committee for that purpose, but many local groups are confused about how to take advantage of the option. |
