Evolution of Campaign Finance (DEMOCRATS ARE FLOUTING THE LAW! CLINTONISTAS NAACP UNIONS ETC.)

Business Week/RNC Email ^ | September 12-15, 2003 | Lorraine Woellert

[Recovering_Democrat]

Imagine a political organization with more than $250 million in the bank, a fine-tuned direct-mail operation, some of the best political minds in the country, and legions of volunteers at the ready. …

This group is America Votes, a confederacy of liberal causes that is mobilizing to fill the money void left by a new campaign-finance law that is hampering Democrats' fund-raising. … With a Presidential election bearing down, America Votes pulls together some 20 progressive interests in a kind of shadow party.

…America Votes is the first evolutionary response to the law's fund-raising restrictions. And it might be the only way for Dems, who long have relied on now-banned donations from unions and wealthy givers, to stay in the game against the GOP … President George W. Bush and the Republican National Committee are on target to raise a record half-billion dollars before Election Day 2004. …

America Votes has the potential to replace the Democratic Party as the center of liberal efforts. It will be governed by a top-flight list of Democratic insiders. President Cecile Richards, … is a former deputy chief of staff to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Founders include AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, and Gregory T. Moore, executive director of the NAACP National Voter Fund.

The goal is to turn out the vote in swing states … Member groups will share polling data, research, and mailing lists, including "Demzilla," the Democratic National Committee's massive voter data bank. They'll … hire coordinators in as many as 17 states. …

America Votes will have help from a new political action committee, America Coming Together, which expects to raise $75 million by Election Day in pledges from wealthy donors. Among them: billionaire financier and Bush critic George Soros, who is kicking in $10 million … A $50 million media campaign to support the Democratic nominee, led by Harold Ickes, President Clinton's former deputy chief of staff, will complement ACT's ground war. …

But some critics wonder how helpful these groups will be. If the nominee depends on America Votes, any attempt to move to the center to woo swing votes risks muddling the message or alienating America Votes funders. "This is one of the greatest dislocations of political power in the 200 years of the republic," says GOP lawyer Jan Baran, who represents BCRA challengers.

[Recovering_Democrat]

What unbelievable CRAP.

[ladyinred]

These lawless, immoral, indecent, despicable thugs never met a law they felt they had to obey. They love to pass them, but they never intend to follow them. But Republicans sure as heck better or it's off with their heads!!

[Texas Eagle]

Thank you John McCain.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Funny.

10 million from one liberal.

50 million from another liberal.

(And here I thought CFR was supposed to get the EVIL RICH Repuppies out of politcs.....So the democrats could use federal money to fund their campaigns..)

[SAJ]

Been that way for years. Yawn. Until the legal structure can and WILL jail these folks, the whole thing amounts to:

Breaking News!! Sun rises in East -- tape at eleven!

[At _War_With_Liberals]

The Democrats sure know how to organize. Where do Dems find the time to run all of these groups?

[Paleo Conservative]

What unbelievable CRAP.

What's unbelievable about it. Didn't you think the DemocRATS had already figured out a way around campaign finance reform for before they voted for it?

[sgtbono2002]

Campaign Finance Reform was and is a joke. They had the ways around it figured before it was passed. McCain and Lieberman ,what a couple of buttheads.