Free Republic

The advocacy groups that rose to prominence in 2004 have scaled back their federal activity this election. Instead, 527s are focusing on state issues and elections. Liberals have raised more money than conservatives. In politics, the money behind the message speaks volumes. And although the issue advocates known as 527 committees continue to be somewhat elusive, the Center for Responsive Politics has found that these tax-exempt groups are increasingly putting their 2006 money into state-level messages, instead of focusing on national issues. 527 committees raise unlimited money for political activities, such as voter mobilization efforts, and use advertising to push...

Did you ever wonder how a small group of Boomer radicals took over the Democratic Party, the universities, the media and Bolshiewood? David Horowitz may know. What’s more, he thinks it’s happening again, with what he and Richard Poe call the “Shadow Party,” a “George Soros conglomerate” that can mobilize some $300 million in political money to control the Dems. Horowitz explains, in a chilling interview with Bill Steigerwald of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, based on his new book with Richard Poe called The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party (Nelson...

    The House yesterday narrowly approved new regulations for political 527 groups funded by multimillionaires -- a change to campaign-finance law that Republicans argue will curb the influence the "super-wealthy" have on elections.     Campaign-finance reform measures passed in 2002 that banned parties and candidates from receiving unlimited donations "actually empowered these ideologically driven outside groups," said Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan Republican. "This bill will help restore some balance to our system."     The House passed the measure by a 218-209 vote over the objections of most Democrats and 18 Republicans who felt it restricts the First Amendment rights of citizens.     The...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday to crack down on independent political groups that spent nearly a half-billion dollars in the 2004 election, most of it trying to help Democrats. The measure would impose limits on individual contributions to those groups and require them to register with the Federal Election Commission. On a largely party-line vote of 218-209, the House sent the bill to the Senate where it faces an uncertain fate. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said Congress may want to examine campaign financing in advance of the...

www.gunowners.orgApr 2006 House To Vote This Week On Further Limiting Free Speech Gun Owners of America 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22151 (703)321-8585 Tuesday, April 4, 2006 Remember the Swift Boat Veterans? After a presidential election which was determined by fewer than 120,000 Ohio voters, it is clear that George Bush is president of the United States -- rather than John Kerry -- because of the swift boat veterans and because of pro-gun support. For their part, the swift boat veterans formed a political organization under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code -- and their organization was...

Do you remember the campaign-finance-reform riddle of a few years ago? Democrats, despite their image as the party of the little guy, were deeply dependent on big-money donors to keep the party afloat. Yet they supported reform, even though it would work against them by forbidding those big-money donors from giving their big money directly to the Democratic Party.Republicans, on the other hand, despite their image as the party of plutocrats, actually had far more small-money donors than Democrats. But they opposed reform, even though it would help them by making small-money donors the key to party finance.Back then, one...

WASHINGTON - The Federal Election Commission failed to give a good reason for refusing to rein in nonprofit political groups that spent huge sums in the 2004 presidential elections, a judge has ruled in a case brought by President Bush's campaign and lawmakers. In a 34-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said the FEC failed to give "a reasoned explanation" for its decision not to issues rules to require so-called "527" groups to register as federal political action committees and face the same strict fundraising, spending and disclosure rules PACs do. But Sullivan stopped short of saying the...

 The Federal Election Commission’s suit against the Club for Growth continues this agency’s war on the First Amendment and its defense of incumbents from criticism of their policies. The FEC’s claims and legal theories are a bizarre interpretation of the Club’s mission, the Constitution, the laws adopted by Congress and their own regulations governing nonprofit organizations.The Club’s principle purpose is to advocate for and defend pro-growth policies. One of the ways we do that is through the Club for Growth PAC, which allows Club members to donate to pro-growth candidates and independent expenditure campaigns. We have consulted with counsel every...

A year ago, the liberal group America Coming Together was on the cutting edge of national politics, spending tens of millions of dollars on a massive voter-mobilization project in every presidential battleground state. The dream was that ACT -- heavily funded by billionaire George Soros -- would play a decisive role in getting Democratic nominee John F. Kerry elected president and then remain in business as a permanent force in liberal politics. Steve Rosenthal, who launched America Coming Together to mobilize voters for Democrat John F. Kerry, said maintaining momentum after the election proved to be harder than expected. Billionaire...

AS HOWARD DEAN stormed through Boston last week, the media focus was on the controversy stirred by his recent series of brash remarks. (To paraphrase, he has said that Republicans are a bunch of white Christians who don't make honest livings.) But the real problem facing Dean right now isn't his mouth. In the past several weeks, major Democratic donors have begun to grumble that the onetime presidential candidate turned party chairman isn't paying them enough attention and that the Democratic National Committee isn't raising enough money to compete with its Republican counterpart. The numbers seem to support the donors'...

Guess who's having second thoughts about the merits of campaign-finance reform? Some of the very same liberal groups that for years championed tighter controls on free speech and political donations, that's who. Exhibit A came yesterday. The New York Campaign Finance Board preempted a vote by the City Council to loosen the limits on political contributions by unions. The significance of the board's open retreat will be felt well beyond City Hall — because the New York experience reinforces a national trend against current campaign-finance laws. These restrictions have always produced unintended outcomes — mostly bad: They've made elections less...

What issue could possibly draw conservative Republicans and the Congressional Black Caucus into a legislative alliance? This morning, the Washington Times reports that the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act's provisions on campaign limits hit sour notes with both groups, as traditional African-American outreach efforts got starved in favor of the massive influence of George Soros' 527 strategies in 2004: Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus are teaming up with conservative Republicans to push for the first major changes in the 2002 campaign-finance reform bill, most admitting that they made a mistake in voting for the bill three years ago....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tracey Schmitt 202-863-8614 “MoveOn.org’s vulgar depiction of a violent attack on the Capitol -- a building that symbolizes our democracy -- is beyond the pale of acceptable political discourse. Democrats know Senator Frist’s efforts are intended to restore Senate tradition by granting highly qualified judicial nominees the vote they deserve and have received for the past 214 years. It’s sad that the Democrats and their third party allies would choose to play on Americans’ fears instead of engaging in constructive political debate.” - RNC Communications Director Brian JonesMoveon.Org Has Long History Of Airing Inflammatory And Inappropriate Ads...

Something remarkable is happening as a Republican Congress and president move to crackdown on 527 groups like the MoveOn.org Voter Fund and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth: Liberals are realizing that something's fishy. Three years after the passage of McCain-Feingold (a.k.a. the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, a.k.a. the End of Free Speech As We Know It), a smattering of Democrats and liberal activists are slowly coming to the conclusion that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to let the government decide who can and cannot engage in political speech. After all, what would prevent incumbents in Congress...

When it comes time for the inevitable legal challenge to the latest iteration of the First Amendment-trampling legislation known as campaign finance "reform," we hope the Supreme Court takes a careful look at a dispatch in yesterday's issue of Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill. Dating back to their egregious 1976 error in the landmark case of Buckley v. Valeo, the justices have held that the public interest in preventing corruption is adequate to allow limits on campaign contributions, that is, restrictions on political speech that would otherwise be protected by the First Amendment. Since then, the slope...

MEET THE PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAYOut Of The Mainstream Organization Providing Democrats With Resources To Block President Bush's Judicial Nominee     "'People for the American Way' is yet another example of an extreme special interest group that Democrats allow to control their agenda in Congress. It is troubling that Senate Democrats would align themselves with a radical political agenda far out of the mainstream on such important issues to our country. Blocking well-qualified nominees for political gain may sound like a good idea for liberal extremists, but it is certainly not in the best interest of the American...

527s? That’s so over. Now, the big money is going somewhere else. Although Democrats often maintain that their unprecedented outside-the-party campaign against President Bush last year, led by the so-called 527 groups, was a broad-based, grassroots effort, it was, in fact dependent in substantial part on just five donors: financier George Soros, Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis, Hollywood mogul Stephen Bing, and the California investors Herbert and Marion Sandler. Together, they spent about $78 million in the effort to defeat the president — more than the $75 million in federal funds that each presidential candidate received to conduct his entire...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Brian Jones 202-863-8614 “The Campaign for America’s Future is relying on fabrications and false assumptions in its political attacks against President Bush’s efforts to preserve Social Security for future generations.  The realities are President Bush has pledged not to change benefits for Americans over 55 years old and Social Security will go bankrupt unless action is taken.  If this out-of-the-mainstream interest group really cares about the future, it should stop misleading voters and start campaigning to modernize Social Security.” - Brian Jones, RNC Communications Director  Campaign For America’s Future (CAF) Underestimates Potential Market Gains From Personal Retirement...

This is the moment when we list our priorities for the new year, counting off the most important social challenges the country faces and the remedies we'd like to see our elected officials adopt. Normally, we urge that all this be accomplished in a spirit of bipartisanship. All that requires a leap of faith that's beyond us this season. Instead, we'd like to pick out a few areas that may be a little lower on the agenda, but where the need is aching and the potential bridges between the parties are already clear and sturdy. All it takes is a...

It's encouraging to see signs of life in Washington, particularly on the Republican side of the aisle, over the obvious need to plug the newest subterranean pipe for unregulated campaign funds from big labor, big corporations and just plain big money. Of all the subplots in the presidential election, none were as sorry as the Democrats' pioneering "527" groups - named for the section of the tax code that governs them. The 527's were intended to circumvent the law's strictures against having unlimited soft money flood into political races. The Democrats built these new shadow-party advocacy groups to attack the...