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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (44189)	5/13/2004 5:08:21 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793859

This will be major. 'Soft money' may help GOP launch wider attack on Kerry By Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — After holding back for months, Republican political operatives say they will compete with Democrats in raising and spending millions of dollars in unregulated "soft money" on this year's presidential election. The change comes as federal regulators on Thursday refused to impose new restrictions on political groups that are spending millions on the presidential election. Several Democratic groups have already begun spending large donations on advertising and get-out-the-vote activities. Republicans had asked to step in and stop the activities under the campaign law that broadly banned big checks known as "soft money" from federal elections. But four of the six Federal Election Commission members on Thursday refused to step in, tabling the issue for at least three months. Susan Hirschmann, president of the Leadership Forum, a Republican-allied political group, said before Thursday's FEC inaction that she will begin raising money in earnest to counter the tens of millions of dollars already raised by Democratic groups. "We will raise money to get out the Republican message," said Hirschmann, a lobbyist and former chief of staff for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas. Big bucks for Dems Fundraising so far by leading Democratic-allied advocacy groups: America Coming Together $19 million The Media Fund $15 million MoveOn.org Voter Fund $8.6 million Source: Center for Responsive Politics Other groups may follow. "If the other guys are doing soft money, we have to do it, too," said Grover Norquist, who coordinates GOP-allied groups as president of Americans for Tax Reform. That could bring in millions of previously untapped dollars from Republican donors and re-establish President Bush's financial dominance over Democrat John Kerry in the presidential race. It could also boost the amount of negative ads in the campaign if the new GOP-allied groups attack Kerry as the Democratic-allied groups have done with Bush. Most activity by independent political groups — known as "527s" for the section of tax law under which they are organized — has been among Democrats. That has helped to counter Bush's campaign fundraising advantage. While the Bush and Kerry campaigns are limited in what they can collect, the outside groups can take multimillion-dollar donations from wealthy partisans such as financier George Soros. If the FEC fails to enact regulations, "it will be abundantly clear that 527s are going to play a major role in the election," Hirschmann said. "We do not want to see Soros and the unions and the liberal Democrat 527s go unanswered." Party officials pointed to other Republican-affiliated groups such as Progress for America and the Republican Governors Association as likely vehicles for big-bucks fundraising to support Bush's re-election and attack Kerry. GOP operatives said those organizations have credibility with Republican donors and the ability to mount effective advertising and organizing campaigns. Democratic FEC Commissioner Scott Thomas, who joined Republican Michael Toner as the only two to favor imposing new fund-raising and spending limits on the groups, predicted the decision would allow both Republicans and Democrats to engage in no-holds-barred spending this election year. He predicted pro-Republican groups would quickly surpass the Democrats. "I think it is possible the Democrats could wind up, from this point on, worse off," Thomas said. Democratic commissioner Ellen Weintraub, one of four commissioners who voted against new limits, said she supported a proposal by FEC lawyers to take another three months to study the issue. "I said at the outset I didn't think we had given ourselves enough time to do the job right," Weintraub said. Contributing: The Associated Press. Find this article at: usatoday.com