Charities fill parties’ roles with help of millions of dollars in soft money
hillnews.com
By Alexander Bolton
Fueled by unlimited anonymous contributions, self-described nonpartisan charity groups are launching ambitious programs to register hundreds of thousands of new voters in key battleground states this year. Most of the groups are traditionally allied with Democrats.
Five large liberal-leaning charities interviewed by The Hill said they plan to register upwards of 5 million new voters through registration programs that will cost millions of dollars.
The organizations are: USAction, People for the American Way, the Center for Community Change, the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and the League of Conservation Voters.
Two charities that are also expected to conduct major registration operations, the NAACP Voter Education Fund and ACORN/Project Vote, did not respond to requests for comment.
Three of the charities are affiliated with groups belonging to America Votes, a coalition of Democratic-aligned organizations headed by Cecile Richards, daughter of former Democratic Texas Gov. Ann Richards and former deputy chief of staff to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
They are targeting their efforts in many of the same states, such as Florida, New Mexico, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Washington, Oregon, Missouri and Ohio, that were decided in the 2000 presidential election by six percentage points or less.
Several groups have added or are likely to add Colorado to their target list after senior Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell announced his retirement, making that race competitive.
All of the groups are widely viewed as liberal by Republican political strategists, and the overwhelming majority of voters these groups register and turn out to the polls are expected to vote Democratic.
On the Republican side, conservative activists have created a new charity, Americans of Faith, to register 2 million new conservative Christian voters. The group is hoping to raise $2.5 million for that effort.
Nevertheless, officials at the charities, which are tax-exempt under section 501(c)3 of the U.S. tax code, say they are complying with the law and their activities are purely nonpartisan.
But the launch of the new registration programs coincides with a surge in donations from anonymous donors, which is happening under a new regulatory regime that prohibits national parties from raising unlimited soft money to register new voters.
Jeff Blum, the executive director of USAction Education Fund, said he could not estimate — beyond a guess of “millions” — how much his group would spend on voter registration this year.
“[Our] access to funds is so much bigger than it’s ever been in the past,” he said. “Donors are coming to the table who haven’t come in the past. We’re obviously looking at something bigger” than the group’s effort 2002.
Blum declined to reveal who had donated to his group, the largest contributions or the average size of the contributions.
Unlike political action committees and so-called 527 soft-money fundraising groups, named after a section of the U.S. tax code, 501(c)3 charities don’t have to report their contributors to the Federal Election Commission, the IRS or any federal agency.
And unlike donations to political and lobbying organizations, donations to 501(c)3s are tax-deductible.
Blum said the USAction Education Fund would spend several million dollars to register 500,000 new voters, targeting young people, people of color, low-income people and gays and lesbians.
The fund will also seek to inform seniors in battleground states on the Medicare bill Congress passed last year.
Blum is generally regarded as liberal. For example, he is participating in an effort “against the president’s radical tax-cutting agenda,” he said.
USAction, an affiliate of the USAction Education Fund also headed by Blum, is a member of the America Votes Coalition.
Other charities perceived as liberal or affiliated with liberal advocacy organizations are also unveiling new voter registration programs or significantly expanding old ones.
People for the American Way Foundation, a 501(c)3, is in the process launching three new voter-registration programs: Sanctified Seven, an effort to register new voters through predominantly African-American churches; and Mi Familia Vota and Yo Voto Por Mi Pueblo, two programs targeted at Hispanic voters.
Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way, also a member of America Votes, said the foundation’s programs would spend “several million dollars to target several hundred thousand African-American and Hispanic voters.”
The efforts will concentrate in Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.
In addition to the tax-exempt foundation, there is a People for the American Way advocacy organization and a People for the American Way political action committee.
The group has drawn the anger of conservatives by forcefully opposing President Bush’s controversial judicial nominees. One conservative political operative called People for the American Way “socialist.”
Neas said “there is a very tall wall” separating the charity, the advocacy organization and the PAC. “Partisan activities can have nothing to do with 501(c)3 initiatives,” he said.
By law, charities must only conduct nonpartisan voter activities to keep their tax-exempt status. But the law also allows charities to register and mobilize likely Democratic or Republican voters.
In 2000, African-Americans voted for then-Vice President Al Gore over Bush by a ratio of 9 to 1. Similarly, a significant majority of low-income Hispanics voted for Democrats.
By targeting African-Americans and Hispanics in low-income communities, charities like USAction Education Fund and People for the American Way Foundation can be assured that a large majority of new voters they register will vote for Democrats.
Lloyd Mayer, a lawyer at Caplin & Drysdale who represents some of the groups conducting voter-registration programs, said the Internal Revenue Service has issued rulings that allow groups to target African-Americans and Hispanics, even if these potential voters are likely to vote overwhelmingly Democratic.
“It’s generally believed by practitioners that [the rulings] apply to any group that can demonstrate a history of discrimination in access to the ballot box.”
However, Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics and a former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission, said charities that target certain groups of voters wade into murky legal waters.
Noble said FEC regulations prohibit charities that accept unregulated contributions from targeting their voter-registration efforts on citizens “intending to register” with a particular party.
“The tough question is whether targeting a demographic group is sufficient to say you are targeting those likely to support a political party,” he said.
In addition to the USAction Education Fund, the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project intends to register 1 million new Hispanic voters through its Campaign for Change, spending more than $2 million on the effort. The Southwest Voter project is undertaking that effort as part of a new coalition with the Earth Day Network, the NAACP Voter Fund and Project Vote.
The Southwest Voter Project will also try to mobilize 2 million new Hispanic voters through its 10-4 Campaign, in partnership with other Hispanic groups.
Another 501(c)3, the Center for Community Change, will work to register 100,000 “low-income people of color” in 10 battleground states: New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina.
And the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, a 501(c)3, plans to spend $40,000 on a new program to register 50,000 young voters on college campuses in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Washington. |
