Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain (search) pressed a cable company's case for pricing changes with regulators at the same time a tax-exempt group that he has worked with since its founding solicited $200,000 in contributions from the company. Help from McCain, who argues for ridding politics of big money, included giving the CEO of Cablevision Systems Corp. (search) the opportunity to testify before his Senate committee, writing a letter of support to the Federal Communication Commission and asking other cable companies to support so-called a la carte pricing (search

The Federal Election Commission will consider rulemaking to apply the Bipartisan Campaign Act to politics on the web sometime in March 2005. An FEC employee told me there will be a press release on March 17th or 24th. According to articles on Zdnet and Worldnet Daily, proposed regulations may require blog posters to register with the FEC, report expenditures at regular intervals, assign a value to hyperlinks and set contribution limits. Do you want to familiarize yourself with terms like: political action committee (PAC), independent vs in-Kind donations, issue vs express advocacy, spending limits, reporting intervals and coordination with a...

As the primary Senate authors of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, we have spent years fighting to clean up elections and ensure that powerful monied interests do not drown out the voices of everyday Americans in our political system. Those interests don't want to give up any of their power, and their main tactic has been to try to whip up fears, however unfounded and unrealistic, about reform. The latest misinformation from the anti-reform crowd is the suggestion that our bill will require regulation of blogs and other Internet communications. A recent federal court decision requires the Federal...

Mr. President, Leader Frist, Speaker Delay, Senators McCain, Bond, and Talent, Congressman Graves, NRAILA, and Free Republic members, While listening to NRA News on my long drive home from Wichita today I was disturbed to hear that “Campaign Finance Reform” was again in the news. Apparently Senators McCain and Feingold have brought this abomination back up to protest the “527’s” and plug any “loopholes” in the BCRA law and to persuade the FEC to regulate speech on the internet. 5 hours have passed from this report and I can hardly contain my frustration. You guys need to hear this loud...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Excesses in McCain-FeingoldPublished March 5, 2005 The 2004 presidential campaign gave the lie to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 -- otherwise known as McCain-Feingold, whose intent is to keep "big money" out of politics. Billionaire George Soros is probably still chuckling about that. Now, Federal Election Commission commissioner Bradley Smith warns that legally it could be used to stifle free speech on the Internet.     Here's how: The law regulates political advertising coordinated with political campaigns that appears on "any broadcast, cable or satellite communication, newspaper, magazine, outdoor advertising facility, mass mailing or telephone bank...

The freewheeling days of Internet political advertising may be coming to an end. The Federal Election Commission plans to begin reviewing next month whether the Internet should continue to enjoy its privileged status as exempt from some of the stricter dictates of a 2002 campaign finance law. For the last three years, the FEC has been fighting to protect the rough-and-tumble world of Net advertising from being shackled by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, better known as the McCain-Feingold law. In the 2004 election, advocacy groups or rich individuals were able to coordinate online advertising with a political campaign without...

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...

If the Federal Election Commission has any sense of shame, it will immediately meet in an emergency session to deal with a scathing new court decision that pinions the commission for what it has long been: the chief writer and enabler of election law loopholes that invite big-money corruption of the political process. In a stinging judgment, a federal judge in Washington struck down 15 of the F.E.C.'s recent rule interpretations as gimmicks transparently designed to undermine - not uphold - the campaign finance reform law of 2002. Rarely has a federal watchdog been so thoroughly rebuked. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly...

Joint Statement by Bush-Cheney Campaign Chairman Marc Racicot and RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie on Today’s FEC Ruling on 527 Groups (title edited for length)  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Christine Iverson202-863-8614 “The FEC’s decision today to do nothing to stop the massive spending of soft money “527” committees to influence the 2004 elections is unfortunate, but provides clarity. “It has always been clear to us that the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (“BCRA”) and its subsequent affirmation by the Supreme Court would limit the role of political parties in the political process and allow special interest “527” groups to proliferate. We had...

Washington, DC—The Republican National Committee and the Bush Cheney campaign today announced they are filing a complaint against third party 527 groups and the John Kerry for President campaign. “Senator Kerry, who supported the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCRA) is now the beneficiary of the single largest conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws in history,” said RNC Chief Counsel Jill Holtzman Vogel. The complaint which will be filed with the Federal Election Commission today outlines violations of campaign finance law including using soft money to advocate for or against a candidate for federal office and illegally coordinating campaign activity...

<p>Democrats in Congress owe Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith an apology. The man they once called "Dracula" and tried to banish from Washington may now save their ability to keep raising millions of dollars in "soft money" to defeat President Bush this November. And properly so.</p>

<p>The Republican National Committee plans to ask the Federal Election Commission today to ban the raising of $300 million or more in "soft money" by pro-Democratic groups seeking to pay for voter mobilization and TV ads in this year's elections.</p>

Losing Crusade May Still Pay Dividends for a Senator By CARL HULSE and GLEN JUSTICE Published: December 27, 2003 WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 — Senator Mitch McConnell was such a determined opponent of the new campaign finance law that when the fight moved from Congress to the courts, he made certain the decisive case was titled McConnell vs. F.E.C. Now, with the Supreme Court validating the campaign spending restrictions enforced by the Federal Election Commission in a ruling earlier this month, Mr. McConnell will remain strongly identified with the cause, but on the losing side. That twist is not lost on...

The First Amendment is dead. Repealed. History. Do I still have the right to still say that? Better check with the Supreme Court. In a strange decision last week, a 5-4 majority of the court upheld the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, often known as McCain-Feingold. One element of the law bars “soft money” donations to political parties. In other words, even if you want to give a fortune to the Democratic Party, you’ll no longer be allowed to. But political parties hardly matter anymore, because of another provision of McCain-Feingold. The law also bars them, and unions, interest groups...

New FEC Chairman Vows to Enforce Law Thu Dec 18, 5:13 PM ET Add U.S. Government - AP to My Yahoo! By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Democrats who have been forming special groups to avoid spending restrictions in the campaign finance law may soon face some bad news: The government's new chief election regulator is warning their activities could be reined in. Multimedia • Run for the White House 2004 (AP Flash) Bradley Smith, the Republican chosen Thursday as chairman of the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites), said he believes a recent Supreme Court ruling...

11 Republican Senators who voted for the BCFA of 2002:McCain, Fitzgerald, Lugar, Collins, Snowe, Cochran, Domenicic, Spector, Chafee, Thompson Warner41 Republican House Members voted for the BCFA of 2002:Bohlert, Bono, Capito, Castle, Ferguson, Foley, Frelinghausen, Ganske, Gilchrest, Gilman, Graham, Greenwood, Grucci, Houghton, Horn, Johnson(CT), Johnson(IL), Kirk, LaTourette, Leach, LoBiondo, McHugh, Morella, Osborne, Ose, Petri, Platts, Quinn, Ramstad, Ros-Lehtinen, Sanders, Shays, Simmons, Smith(Mi), Thune, Upton, Walsh(not my clan), Wamp, Weldon(Pa), WolfOne President Signed BCRA of 2002:President Bush

In a tragic decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that jeopardizes a cardinal principle of the U.S. Constitution: free speech. Concerned Women for America's Chief Counsel Jan LaRue noted that the decision means less protection for political speech, the very speech the First Amendment aims to shield, than for pornography. The following article comes to us from the James Madison Center for Free Speech of Washington, D.C. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution mandates that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech." Today the United States Supreme Court has...

Reports that main portions of McCain-Feingold are now being upheld! People currently wading through a decision of over 300 pages.

Many close observers of the Supreme Court expect a ruling in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA – better known as McCain-Feingold) case McConnell v. FEC before the High Court goes home for Christmas break on December 15. The National Rifle Association (NRA), one of the plaintiffs in McConnell, is already planning its next move. Even if only a threat, it’s a strategy you could easily imagine John Cleese of Monty Python fame coming up with – acting absurd to illustrate the absurdity of the law. It’s a beautiful idea. Under present law institutional media organizations like ABC or CNN,...

My daughter has a question as she prepares for her finals tomorrow in her First Amendment class. It is relating to campaign finance law and government restrictions on expendutures and contributions in the 1976 case of Buckley vs. Valeo. She doesn't understand the difference between individual contributions to candidates and independant individual expenditures relative to a clearly identified candidate. It seems that the court allows a limit on contributions but doesn't allow a limit on expenditures. She doesn't know how to tell the difference between individual contributions and individual expenditures. Also, she is confused about the difference between soft and...