Posted on 10/28/2004 7:11:10 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - More wealthy donors are giving $1 million or more to partisan political organizations now than before a 2002 law took effect, aimed at removing big money from federal elections.
The top giver is George Soros, the billionaire financier who jump-started pro-Democratic efforts to find a way to keep spending the unlimited checks the Democratic Party can no longer collect. Soros, who has given roughly $24 million to various groups opposing President Bush (news - web sites), said he donated so much to these so-called 527s to help the Democrats compete financially with Republicans.
"I have to make the playing field more even," Soros said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, adding that he feels Bush is leading the country in the wrong direction. "I used the available legal means. I didn't invent 527s. They were part of the law."
About five dozen people are on the list of $1 million-plus donors to partisan groups active in this year's presidential and congressional races.
That compares with about three dozen during the heyday of party "soft money" in the 2002 election cycle and about two dozen in 2000, according to data compiled by the Political Money Line campaign finance tracking service.
Such tax-exempt political groups began cropping up in larger numbers after a law took effect in November 2002 banning political parties from accepting soft money — corporate, union and unlimited contributions.
Some of those who wrote big checks in 2002 when national party committees and members of Congress could still accept them are giving even more now — this time to nonparty partisan groups running ads and get-out-the-vote campaigns.
One of the top donors on the Republican side, Dallas financier T. Boone Pickens, said he thinks 527s as they now exist should be abolished.
He said he didn't donate to them until the leaders of two anti-Kerry groups approached him in early summer, after the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites) rebuffed a push by the GOP and campaign watchdogs to limit the partisan groups' fund raising.
"I saw what Soros was doing and I was somewhat surprised at some of the statements that he made. I felt they were pretty vicious statements about the president," said Pickens, who gave roughly $5 million to the anti-Kerry groups after they approached him. "I was ready when they showed up, to put some money up."
The flood of unlimited donations, despite a broad ban on the use of such soft money to influence federal races, has so alarmed the law's supporters that they are making legislation to stop it a priority in the next Congress.
"We still have work to do," said Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., a lead House sponsor of the soft-money ban. Meehan and other supporters of the law are suing the Federal Election Commission for failing to rein in the partisan soft-money groups.
On the other hand, he said, the Supreme Court has paved the way for millionaires to spend large sums on politics.
The court long has held that individuals have a constitutional right to spend as much of their own money as they wish on political speech, such as airing political ads. But Meehan and other campaign finance watchdogs argue they do not necessarily have a right to give unlimited donations to partisan groups spending in federal elections.
This election cycle, wealthy individual donors have helped nonparty 527s double their fund raising overall, playing a bigger role in the finances of major groups than have the corporations and unions that used to give millions to the national party committees.
In all, tax-exempt, political groups registered with the IRS as 527s have raised more than $460 million in the 2003-04 election cycle, compared with about $221 million in 2001-2002, a Political Money Line analysis found.
Though prolific giving by Soros and other Democratic supporters started months before pro-Bush groups began aggressively raising big checks, the top-10 list of individual 527 donors is now split between Democrats and Republicans.
On the anti-Bush side, top donors besides Soros include Ohio businessman Peter Lewis who has given at least $23 million, and Hollywood executive Stephen Bing, who has donated roughly $14 million.
Top donors to pro-Bush groups include Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, whose $8 million in giving includes donations to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose TV ads accused John Kerry (news - web sites) of lying about his decorated Vietnam War service.
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On the Net:
Political Money Line: http://www.politicalmoneyline.com
In one sense, Soros is right, under the First Amendment, he has the right to finance paid fraudulent advertisements that present vicious lies in order to bamboozle people.
In the larger sense, he is wrong to do it. Morally wrong, morally bankrupt, perhaps even evil. That is between him and God.
Perhaps it is, in the long term, for the best. It is foolish to believe what you see on TV. Media can make lies seem real. People make enormous money telling lies, and have great fun telling lies.
In the end, it is up to the individual to reject them. Without an internal moral compass, this is not easy.
That can't be! We have laws to keep big money out of politics.
On w/Greta now...
Weasley Cluck is talking about 527s and the Founding Fathers and the political system we have today and how we are competing in the political arena.. and too much distortion and smearing goes on..
Yeah, Tell us about it , weasley.
I guess if you dummify enough of the populace thru liberal education and toss in a huge supply of drugs and propaganda on enough media channels, even the greatest nations will fall.
Or maybe not. If we're lucky enough to still have an operational compass. ;-)
Look at this.....esp. the contributions from "other candidates" for Bush and Kerry......those Dems have been ponying up.....and the LOANS from Candidate, of course...
BUSH
Activity Through 1/1/2003 - 10/13/2004
Total Receipts $365,398,443
Contributions From Individuals $266,477,243
Contribs from PACs
PAC Contributions Totaled by Interest Heading
1. Finance, Insurance
$363,299
2. Single-Issue Groups
$319,621
3. Law
$248,498
4. Energy, Natural Resources
$214,475
5. Agriculture
$193,792
6. Business - Retail, Services
$176,050
7. Transportation
$159,098
8. Health Care
$154,600
9. Communication, Technology
$128,000
10. Real Estate/Construction
$122,498
11. Manufacturing
$103,000
12. Defense
$56,500
13. Organized Labor
$31,500
14. Undetermined
$19,000
15. Miscellaneous
$10,000
16. City / County
$4,500
17.
$2,000
$2,870,372
Contribs/loans from the Candidate $0
Contribs from Party $28,017
Coordinated Expenditures $0
Independent Expenditures Against:
$10,643,933 For:
$602,123
Details
Contribs from Politicians PACs $188,974
Contribs from Other Candidates/Incumbents $168,243
Total Disbursements $317,546,091
Contribs To Others By This Candidate $3,889,448
Outstanding Debts $1,031,000
Cash Available as of 10/13/2004 $139,612,148
KERRY
Activity Through 1/1/2003 - 10/13/2004
Total Receipts $333,758,674
Contributions From Individuals $221,493,411
Contribs from PACs
PAC Contributions Totaled by Interest Heading
1. Single-Issue Groups
$19,396
2. Organized Labor
$11,750
3. Law
$10,750
4. Health Care
$9,152
5. Business - Retail, Services
$5,713
6. Miscellaneous
$5,000
7. Finance, Insurance
$5,000
8. Agriculture
$3,000
9. Real Estate/Construction
$2,500
10. Public Employees
$1,000
11. Energy, Natural Resources
$450
Contribs/loans from the Candidate $6,387,965
Contribs from Party $967
Coordinated Expenditures $268,090
Independent Expenditures Against:
$485,149 For:
$38,684,219
Details
Contribs from Politicians PACs $6,500
Contribs from Other Candidates/Incumbents $14,232,816
Total Disbursements $260,698,368
Contribs To Others By This Candidate $44,718,731
Outstanding Debts $302,056
Cash Available as of 10/13/2004 $76,121,181
Perry Homes makes a very good home for the money. I am glad to hear that he is a Bush supporter. I may buy a home from him when I get ready to buy.
Thanks!
If the amount of money already given in an attempt to sway the US Federal elections in one direction or the other seems to be staggering, consider the amount that will be spent in the coming court contests over the next few weeks, before a winner is declared. The Democrats have already put the world on notice that anything less than an overwhelming lopsided victory will be contested, beginning with voter registrations, to "intimidation" of potential voters, to challenges to vote totals as recorded on electronic voting machines, to keeping polls open, to "provisional" voting, all the way down to the right of the several individual states to even set standards for voting and recounts. They have raised in excess of $7 million for this already, and apparently there will be no limit how much an individual donor may give to fund this endeavor.
Florida 2000 was a practice run. The Democrat party is prepared to go to the mat on this one.
I'm shocked I tell you, shocked. John McCain told me this would get the big money out of politics.
John McCain knows what he is part of .. the largest legislative debacle in campaign finance reform in history.
It's why he is campaiging so hard for President Bush, I reckun. ;-)
Isn't campaign finance reform great?
Every time I think of McCain, I think of his first wife, who stuck by him through thick and thin, but he dumped after she became disabled. And I think about the Keating Five. He's no saint.
Florida 2000 was our practice-run, alloy! 2002 was our tune-up, and all the cheat-machines were gone, and Florida went 2/3ds Republican!
2004 in Florida is gonna be a blowout! I guaron-damn-tee! Hey - Pete's comin' back for the party!
Now, if I can just get Dave to come over to ass-kiss Jesse again, I can buy a new TV.............FRegards
My vote and my free speech is just as protected as that satanist Soros, yet he "extends" his free speech thru money....
the 527's are a joke, and I would love to hear what McCain and Feigold have to say about it, because it has brought us an extremely vicious campaign funded by a handful of individuals....
>>no one has the right to clobber the citizens just because he has a lot of money....
Use the remote. Press "mute" or change the channel. End of problem. Or do what I do, read books for fun, surf for news.
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