Where does a campaign end and a sympathetic 527 begin? And when does free speech become unacceptable political attack? Jim Jordan, former manager of the Kerry campaign, was hired to handle communications and strategy for The Media Fund and America Coming Together.
boston.com
Campaign finance joke
By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist
August 26, 2004
JUST LIKE campaign finance "reform," hypocrisy can be bipartisan.
On March 20, 2002, John Kerry called on President Bush to support a campaign finance bill as "a way to break free from the status quo," but warned, "However, as with any reform measure, there are always going to be possibilities for abuse. The fact that some people will try to skirt the law is not a reason for us to fail to take this incremental movement toward repairing the system."
On March 27, 2002, Bush signed the "Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002," declaring, "I believe that this legislation, although far from perfect, will improve the current financing system for federal campaigns."
Imperfect the law was and skirt it both parties did -- with Democrats leading the way. Now Democrats and Republicans are calling upon each other to denounce a situation both are exploiting.
The law -- also called McCain-Feingold, after Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Russell Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin -- banned large donations to political parties. But, where there is a will, big money always finds a way. The way around McCain-Feingold is a "527." The number refers to a section of the tax code that allows groups not formally connected to political party or campaign to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money for campaign purposes, as long as those efforts are not coordinated with a party or campaign.
The funding source of harshly critical ads about John Kerry's Vietnam War record is a 527 called "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth." But 527s such as MoveOn, the Media Fund, and America Coming Together are also backing tough anti-Bush advertising. Anti-Bush groups have reportedly outspent the anti-Kerry forces by as much as $50 million to 1.
"Both parties are addicted to this money . . . They are equal opportunity offenders. They are taking advantage of a legal loophole and the Democrats are one step ahead of Republicans," says Scott Harshbarger, a Democrat and former Massachusetts attorney general, who was president of Common Cause when it helped broker the "historic victory to help bring our government back to the people."
The legal question, says Harshbarger, is whether so-called 527s are "really functioning as independent entities or by now are a coordinated campaign expenditure with the party and candidates." It is up to the Federal Elections Commission to answer that question, but as Harshbarger, who now heads a corporate governance practice, sees it, "They don't want to enforce the law. This is a loophole everyone saw, and pointed out to them and they failed to enforce . . .The cop is asleep on the beat and has always been asleep."
Stung by political fall-out from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the Kerry campaign is working to establish the official nexus between that 527 and the Bush-Cheney campaign. The New York Times, which has led the way on reporting a web of connections between the two entities, yesterday reported that Benjamin L. Ginsburg, the Bush campaign's top outside lawyer, said he gave legal advice to the group of veterans attacking Kerry. Ginsburg resigned from the campaign yesterday.
But as Harshbarger points out, "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, unless they want them thrown back at them." Harshbarger says of the 527s, "This now looks on both sides as if this is highly coordinated, exactly what McCain-Feingold was supposed to break."
Where does a campaign end and a sympathetic 527 begin? And when does free speech become unacceptable political attack? Jim Jordan, former manager of the Kerry campaign, was hired to handle communications and strategy for The Media Fund and America Coming Together. Billionaire investor George Soros, a Kerry backer, has contributed $12.6 million to MoveOn.org and other anti-Bush groups. MoveOn has run ads targeted at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that show a hooded Statue of Liberty and are meant to remind viewers of Iraqis abused by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib. Only after the Republican National Committee complained did MoveOn pull ads from its website omparing Bush to Hitler.
The negative onslaught is a turn-off. So are the pious calls to denounce the ads from both campaigns. "I don't think we ought to have 527s," Bush said this week. "I can't be more plain about it and I wish, I hope, my opponent joins me in condemning these activities of the 527s."
Does anyone believe he means it? Does anyone believe Kerry wants to stop the 527s that help make his case? They both know a loophole turned McCain-Feingold into a joke, and the joke is on the voters.
Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com.
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