Posted on 10/18/2002 5:18:40 AM PDT by GailA
Bredesen snubs law, kicks in $1 million Democrats say Hilleary broke liquor-money vow
By Tom Humphrey, News-Sentinel Nashville bureau October 18, 2002
NASHVILLE - Democrat Phil Bredesen said Thursday he has provided $1 million to his gubernatorial campaign and stands ready to spend more to counter negative ads against him.
Republicans denounced Bredesen's move as a violation of law that limits gubernatorial candidates to $250,000 in self-financing per election. Bredesen spokesmen said the law is patently unconstitutional and is not being enforced by state officials.
Republican nominee Van Hilleary, meanwhile, was criticized by Democrats for collecting contributions from liquor- and beer-industry political action committees despite once promising never to take money from "liquor special interests."
Dave Cooley, senior strategist for Bredesen, said the millionaire candidate has opened a line of credit to the campaign, and $1 million is "already committed."
Further personal money will be used to match "dollar-for-dollar" Hilleary spending on "outright lies in attack ads," Cooley said. Bredesen estimated Hilleary "has raised $1.8 million for negative ads," with much of the money coming from fund-raisers hosted by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
"Hilleary knows that the law does not apply," Bredesen said. "It is unconstitutional and invalid."
The state law restricting self-financing was passed in 1995 after Bredesen spent $6 million of his own in an unsuccessful 1994 race against Gov. Don Sundquist.
Bredesen noted that Sen. Bill Frist spent $3 million in personal funds in his 1994 campaign. Lamar Alexander, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, recently disclosed loaning $600,000 to his current U.S. Senate campaign and donated somewhat more than that to his past unsuccessful campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.
The state law does not apply, however, to candidates for federal office.
Frank Cagle, spokesman for Hilleary, said Bredesen was blatantly violating a law "specifically passed after his 1994, $6 million debacle to prevent that from happening again."
Bredesen declared early this year that he would not spend personal money in the primary and that he did not intend to do so in the general election - though he never ruled out doing so.
Democrats, meanwhile, produced a copy of a memo Thursday from Tim Locke of the Smith-Free Group, a Washington lobbying firm, to "friends in beverage, wine, spirits, beer industry" urging donations to Hilleary from PACs they control at a Sept. 30 fund-raiser. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card spoke at the event.
The memo says that national PACs can make one donation to a candidate for state office in Tennessee without registering as a political action committee within the state. Janet Williams of the state Registry of Election Finance said a single such donation is permissible under state law, though Will Pinkston, spokesman for the Tennessee Democratic Coordinate Campaign, said such a donation is questionable.
The memo says, "What is really important is that a candidate be elected to lead Tennessee during the next four years who won't be inclined, in knee-jerk fashion, to look to tax increases on spirits, wine or beer products as a means to solve the state's fiscal woes. Republican Van Hilleary is that candidate."
Pinkston also provided a copy of a 1992 letter Hilleary sent to ministers during an unsuccessful campaign for the state Senate. After declaring his opposition to abortion and legalized gambling, Hilleary says in the letter:
"As your state senator, I also will never accept campaign contributions from the liquor special interests - or any other special interest group for that matter. I want the voters to know my vote is influenced by them, not by lobbyists' campaign money."
Pinkston also noted that Meredith Hilleary, the candidate's wife, worked some years before their marriage as administrative assistant to the vice president of the National Beer Wholesalers Association and that Hilleary, as a congressman, had twice co-sponsored legislation to lower federal beer taxes.
"Van has supported just about every tax-cut bill during his time in Congress," Cagle said. "The suggestion that where Meredith worked had anything to do with it is ridiculous and beneath contempt."
As for accepting contributions from the alcohol industry, Cagle said: "They endorsed Van, Van did not endorse them."
Though Hilleary declared as a state senate candidate and as a congressman that he would take no PAC money, he has said the expense of running a statewide campaign for governor makes such a stance impractical now.
Tom Humphrey may be reached at 615-242-7782 or humphrey@edge.net Richard Powelson of the News-Sentinel Washington bureau contributed to this report.
Come to think of it AlGorebatross has only campaigned for 2 Tennessee canidates. Leftist boby clement who is running against Lamar, and socialist sherry fisher who is running against Heroine anti-income tax warrior Mae Beavers for state Senate.
He won't call in Teddy, shillary, slick, dashole,
Gore's role minor in state politics Bredesen keeping his distance from ex-vice president
Hilleary slams Bredesen loan He says move shows Democrat's campaign hurting
By ROB JOHNSON
Staff Writer
Williamson County Republicans were abuzz last night about Phil Bredesen's money.
Just hours after the wealthy Nashville Democrat announced that he has lent his campaign $1 million in the last weeks of a close election contest, his gubernatorial rival was working the banquet room of a Franklin country club, slapping backs, shaking hands and joking about whether he should dispatch a sheriff ''with a set of handcuffs to arrest Phil Bredesen for breaking the law.''
The law to which Hilleary was referring was a statute that Republicans have been urging the former Nashville mayor not to ignore.
Passed after Bredesen's unsuccessful 1994 gubernatorial bid in which he invested $6 million of his own money, the law caps the amount of personal campaign largess at $250,000 per election cycle.
The Tennessee state attorney general has since issued an opinion that the law is unconstitutional and that candidates nationwide routinely bankroll their campaigns with personal funds.
(MY NOTE this is the SAME AG that says the Income Tax is CONSTITUTIONAL)
Although he hasn't tested the state law in the courts, Bredesen contends that he's free to pump his money into his current effort to win the gubernatorial race.
Hilleary was telling his Williamson County supporters — he admitted last night at the Old Natchez Country Club that he was ''preaching to the choir'' — that his campaign interprets the Bredesen move as evidence that the Democrat must be worried about some recent polling data.
Hence, the infusion of money.
''Do you all realize that Phil Bredesen broke the law by putting in a million of his own dollars that he made as an HMO millionaire?'' Hilleary asked the 100 people in the room, adding later that Bredesen disclosed it ''today because his campaign is in a bit of a free fall.
''I think that's really going to hurt him because he has thumbed his nose at the people.''
Hilleary told the audience that he'd been energized by a recent ride on Air Force One, when President Bush flew with him to Knoxville for a GOP fund-raiser.
''Your No. 1 job is going to be to educate the children of your state,'' Hilleary said Bush instructed him, just as it was Bush's job to defend the country.
Hilleary predicted that ''we are probably about to send troops overseas again.''
Meantime, it would remain the governor's job to improve education and lower taxes, Hilleary said, to preserve freedom at home.
1. If he felt the state law was unconstitutional, he had several years to challange the law in court and prove his case. He chose not to do so. Instead he simply decides to bypass a law that he does not support. Until someone takes any law to court and proves that it is unconstitutional, it is still law. If we allow a chosen few to ignore such laws, our society ends in chaos. Even the elites must follow the law or go through the legal channels to challange the law. They cannot be allowed to simply disregard such laws. Bredesen's decision is in line with his history of arrogantly disregarding any limits to which he objects.
2. This decision proves that Bredesen is at best a political chameleon who changes his stance as it suits him or at worst that he is just a plain old liar. He stressed repeatedly that he would not use his own money but now he changes his stance. For those of us in Nashville, this is the same old Bredesen, a straw in the wind.
3. Using this decision as an example: Bredesen decides to break a law based on the opinion of the AG that the law is not constitutional. One can easily see how the exact same scenario could be used to implement a state income tax. The AG has already ruled that in his opinion a state income tax is not unconstitutional despite three State Supreme Court rulings to the contrary. What would prevent a Governor Bredesen from changing his mind on the income tax, fall back on the AG opinion, and push forward with a state income tax?
4. I believe the last week shows that the Bredesen camp knows that are losing and have little hope. First we have the "break-in" to Bredesen headquarters where there was no sin of forced entry, desks were unlocked, the only key cards to the building and the desks belong to the Bredesen personnel and none of them report a missing key. It all smells of an inside job by the Bredesen people to smear Republicans. This latest decision I believe shows that the visits of President Bush really have paid off and that Van is catching on with average Tennesseans. Bredesen now feels desperate to do anything to offset this trend. Of course in 1994, before the state law on limits, he spent $6 million and lost to Sundquist. Add to that his losses to Bill Boner for Mayor and Bob Clement for Congress. If he chooses to keep throwing away money on losing efforts, that's his problem. Maybe he ought to move back to New York where he might find people who share his beliefs.
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