Nineteen of the 25 largest 527 groups are allies of the Democratic Party. They had raised $148 million for the election through June, while Republican groups in the top 25 raised a total of $45 million in the same period.
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GOP 527s are gaining force in the wake of Swift boat vets
Conservative groups still lag behind their Dem counterparts
By Alexander Bolton
Bolstered by the success of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the once moribund network of Republican-allied 527 groups has gained new fundraising momentum and is putting itself in position to influence the upcoming election significantly.
Nevertheless, these conservative groups, named after a section of the tax code under which they are organized, still lag far behind their liberal counterparts, known collectively as the Shadow Democratic Party.
Nineteen of the 25 largest 527 groups are allies of the Democratic Party. They had raised $148 million for the election through June, while Republican groups in the top 25 raised a total of $45 million in the same period.
The activities of liberal and conservative 527s are likely to continue unrestricted despite a joint effort by President Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the father of recent campaign-finance reform, to pursue a lawsuit in federal court to halt them.
Under pressure to condemn ads by the Swift boat group, Bush asked McCain to join him on the lawsuit. But it’s unlikely to progress since the Federal Election Commission must first dismiss a complaint Bush filed in March against Democratic-allied 527s for the court to act, and the agency has given no sign of doing so soon.
One of the most prominent Republican groups, Progress for America, said last week that it had raised more than $30 million since the end of June to spend on ads supporting Bush. The group claims to have raised $35 million and plans to spend more than $100 million on advertising before Election Day, Nov. 2.
Organizers also unveiled a multimillion-dollar fund named the November Fund last week, with plans to launch television ads attacking the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, John Edwards.
The group has strong financial backing from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups that oppose Edwards because of his career as a trial lawyer before being elected to the Senate six years ago.
“We have received a good deal of initial interest because we’re focused on one issue that is very clear and very substantive and is dramatized by Edwards being on the ticket,” said former Sen. Bill Brock (R-Tenn.), co-chairman of the group, “The abuse of frivolous lawsuits has been an issue for a long time.”
What had previously been a very difficult environment for Republican-allied 527s to raise sums of unregulated soft money has become substantially more lucrative. The change comes at a time when Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has shown conservative donors how much impact a Republican-allied 527 can have on the presidential race with relatively little funding.
The group spent $500,000 on an ad in three battleground states — Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin — alleging that Kerry exaggerated his combat record, and was rewarded with a blizzard of media coverage. A CBS poll released two weeks ago showed that Kerry has lost significant support among veterans, a key prospective constituency, since the ads began to air.
In the wake of its success, fundraising for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has picked up speed. A report filed with the IRS in July showed that the group raised only $158,750 through the end of June. But now it is expected to launch a second round of anti-Kerry ads at an estimated cost of between $1 million and $1.5 million.
“All I can say is that within the first 24 hours of the announcement I received e-
mails and calls from people asking ‘How can I help?’” said Brock, referring to the warm reception to his new group among Republican donors. Brock said that the group has so far raised a sum in the “low seven figures.”
Michael Toner, a GOP-appointed member of the Federal Election Commission, said he had expected Republican 527s to gain ground on Democratic allies because of the election agency’s failure to clamp down on such groups’ activities this year.
“There’s no question that Republican-oriented 527s have become more prominent in recent weeks spending soft-money funds,” he said. “I don’t think that’s surprising, given the regulatory decisions the agency has made. As I indicated when the [stricter regulatory] proposal [Commissioner Scott] Thomas and I submitted was defeated, I thought it likely there would be large-scale soft-money-organization spending on both sides of the aisle. I think that’s coming to pass.”
Another Republican-allied group that has done well recently is the Club for Growth, a group that favors limited government and lower taxes.
In June and July, the months of the group’s most recent fundraising reports, Club for Growth raise $1.62 million, the best it has done in any two-month period since the 2000 election cycle, according to disclosures filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
In total, the Club for Growth has raised close to $4 million in soft money through its 527 this year, and it also operates a hard-money political action committee.
Another group that could figure prominently in soft-money spending is American Resolve, formed last month by Grover Norquist, an anti-tax activist with strong ties to the Bush White House, and John Sununu, who served as chief of staff in the first Bush administration.
David Carney, executive director of the group, said Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has made it easier to raise money.
“It’s a great talking point,” Carney said. “It’s an example of a small amount of money having a very big impact and shows how incompetent the Kerry campaign is dealing with stuff.”
A major disappointment for the GOP, however, has been the Leadership Forum, a 527 headed by Susan Hirschmann, former chief of staff to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). House leaders envisioned the group as the go-to organization for Republican donors who wanted to give six- and seven-figure donations to help GOP House candidates.
But it became embroiled in controversy after accepting and then refunding a questionable $1 million donation from the National Republican Congressional Committee. In the second fundraising quarter, the group raised a paltry $15,000, according to an IRS report. |
