Money, Votes Pursued for Democrats
Many Groups Formed to Offset Campaign Finance Curbs, Overcome GOP Edge
washingtonpost.com
By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 7, 2003; Page A08
Liberal organizations are gearing up to spend an unprecedented $300 million in a determined bid to defeat President Bush.
More than 40 groups plan to fund get-out-the-vote efforts and television issue ads, assuming the traditional role of Democratic Party organizations because of the party's limited resources as a result of the ban on soft money contributions under the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. The effort involves such established organizations as the Sierra Club, the NAACP and the AFL-CIO, and has spawned a network of new groups, including America Coming Together (ACT) and the Media Fund, both of which have set $95 million fundraising targets.
"We're not willing to stand by and watch the Bush administration and their allies inflict their extremist policies on our families for another four years," ACT declared in a recent fundraising solicitation. "Now we are joining together to say NO."
Under McCain-Feingold, parties are banned from collecting donations known as "soft money" from unions, corporations, trade associations and individuals. But many of the "independent" groups, known as 527's from the section of the tax code under which they fall, can accept unlimited donations from all those sources.
Democrats hope the groups will help them compete with the fundraising machine built by the White House and congressional Republicans. Before McCain-Feingold, Democrats had achieved considerable success in raising large amounts of soft money. But Republican Party organizations have traditionally encountered far less difficulty than their Democratic counterparts in raising money in still-legal smaller donations known as "hard money," and this year is no exception.
In the first nine months of this year, Republican National, Senatorial and Congressional committees raised $173.5 million, compared with the $74.9 million raised by the Democratic National, Congressional and Senatorial committees. President Bush, running unopposed, has raised at least $110 million, far more than any of the Democratic contenders.
But the GOP and its allies are attempting to halt the flow of cash to the pro-Democratic groups. House Administration Committee Chairman Robert W. Ney (Ohio) has received authority to subpoena the heads of the Democratic soft money groups after they declined a request to testify before his committee and explain how they are not in violation of federal campaign finance law. In addition, a group of Republicans is seeking an advisory opinion from the Federal Election Commission on the legality of many of the activities of the Democratic organizations.
For the most part, Republican donors are waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold law before they start writing checks to Republican-affiliated independent groups. However, a number of pro-Republican groups, such as Progress for America, the Committee for Justice and the Club for Growth, have run television ads in recent months criticizing Democrats or praising Republicans.
"Our George Soros types are waiting for the Court to give the final okay. When it does, then you'll see some action on our side," one GOP fundraising specialist said.
So far, at least, the independent Democratic groups have been substantially more aggressive and successful in their fundraising, and organized labor, the environmental movement, civil rights-civil liberties groups and trial lawyers have coordinated money and resources to a degree unseen in recent decades.
Twenty-two of the organizations have each kicked in $50,000 to finance an umbrella organization, America Votes, run by Cecile Richards, former top aide to House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). America Votes will serve as a "traffic cop" to make sure that groups are not wasting money and manpower on duplicative activities.
ACT has received $10 million contributions from financier Soros and insurance magnate Peter B. Lewis, and last week held a highly publicized and well-attended Hollywood fundraiser. ACT is expected to play the central role in the voter mobilization work of the America Votes groups.
Another organization, the Media Fund run by former Clinton aide Harold Ickes, has joined forces with ACT to raise money. While ACT is the major "ground war" vehicle for the Democratic groups, the Media Fund will finance radio and television commercials.
Lead fundraising responsibility for both ACT and the Media Fund has been assumed by Ellen R. Malcolm, president of Emily's List, an organization that backs female Democrats who favor abortion rights.
Over the next 11 months leading up to the 2004 general election, the groups will be flooding 17 key states with campaign workers, mail, phone banks and radio and television commercials, all with the single goal of putting a Democrat in the White House.
In the 2002 elections, the Republican Party for the first time in recent memory threatened Democratic dominance in what is known as the "ground war," the get-out-the-vote efforts at which unions, civil rights groups and urban machines have excelled in the past. In many respects, this $300 million collective drive by pro-Democratic organizations is an effort to reassert Democratic superiority in the face of Republican plans to vastly enlarge the GOP's 2002 program known as the "72-hour Project" in 2004.
But the drive has not been without conflict. The new groups are gaining leverage and stature largely at the expense of the national and state Democratic organizations and some of the more established groups in the liberal coalition.
Steve Rosenthal, the head of America Coming Together, the group that has received the lion's share of public attention and the biggest contributions, has butted heads with Gerald W. McEntee, president of one of the nation's largest unions, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and leaders of black and Hispanic affiliates of the AFL-CIO.
To keep the peace, the AFL-CIO and some member unions agreed to finance a separate group, Voices for Working Families, which, until recently, McEntee chaired. Voices has a goal of raising $20 million.
Recent tensions between ACT and the state party leaders in Iowa and Michigan may work to the advantage of another organization, Grassroots Democrats, run by Amy Chapman, who has strong ties to organized labor. Chapman's group has the goal of channeling $12 million in contributions to state parties.
While the groups have not taken sides in the Democratic presidential primary contest, many of the supporting organizations and leaders back former Vermont governor Howard Dean, or have indicated an interest in his candidacy.
In an effort to boost the chances of Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.), many of the hard-hat unions in the building and construction trades have formed a separate group, the Alliance for Economic Justice, to press the issue of trade and promote Gephardt. The role of the Alliance in the general election has yet to be determined.
Database editor Sarah Cohen and researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.
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