Posted on 05/30/2004 6:08:36 AM PDT by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ellen Moran, owner of a solid resume in Democratic politics, is no longer on speaking terms with John Kerry and his campaign aides.
It's not that she's got a problem with the Democratic presidential candidate - quite the opposite. She's in line to run a multimillion-dollar effort funded by the party to help him win the White House - and barred by law from coordinating strategy with his campaign.
"We're in the planning phases and no final decisions have been made about what we're doing," Moran said Friday. She stressed that even the decision to establish a party-funded independent campaign hasn't been formalized.
At the same time, numerous Democrats said that since her arrival at the Democratic National Committee this spring, Moran has methodically begun building a campaign universe parallel to Kerry's.
Longtime Democratic admakers David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Steve Murphy and Saul Shorr are expected to handle the television commercials. The Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group is in line to conduct polling. Moran also is expected to recruit political consultants as well as professionals with experience in political direct mail and voter mobilization.
The size of the effort will be determined by DNC fund raising. As of April 30, the party had raised $91 million for the current election cycle and had $42 million in the bank. About $16 million is earmarked for direct assistance to Kerry's campaign, and there are competing demands for some of the remainder.
The Democrats who discussed the plans did so on condition of anonymity, not wanting to pre-empt formal announcements on decisions they said remain subject to last-minute changes.
At the same time, Kerry's decision this week to formally accept the nomination at the party convention in Boston in late July is likely to make an independent effort more important.
Both Kerry and President Bush have said they intend to accept $75 million in public funding for their fall campaigns. That would prohibit them from spending their own campaign funds after their conventions.
The Democratic convention will take place five weeks earlier than Bush's, and for a few days, Kerry had considered delaying accepting the nomination so he could continue spending his own money longer. Now, the Massachusetts senator will need help if he is to spend as freely as Bush.
At 38, Moran has done this type of work before, although not in a presidential race. Four years ago, she ran an independent campaign for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, overseeing an effort that ran television commercials in numerous districts around the country. Her resume also includes time on Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin's 1992 presidential campaign, former Rep. Joseph Kennedy's short-lived gubernatorial race in Massachusetts in 1997 and Dotty Lamm's unsuccessful 1998 Senate race in Colorado.
She's also worked for EMILY's List, an organization formed to promote the election of Democratic women who favor abortion rights. There, her boss was Mary Beth Cahill, now Kerry's campaign manager. In her last job before moving to the DNC, Moran worked at the AFL-CIO.
"She's as skilled a political operative as I've come across in this business," said Erik Smith, who first worked with her in 1992, then again at the DCCC.
"She has a quiet confidence, which I think is exactly why she got a position as high profile as this one," added Smith, who now works for the Media Fund, an outside group that has aired about $20 million in television commercials criticizing Bush.
Smith emphasized that he hadn't spoken with Moran since she took her job at the DNC. He said he didn't want to run afoul of federal election laws that bar a group such as the one Moran would oversee from coordinating strategy with either the Kerry campaign or outside groups interested in seeing him succeed.
With few exceptions, Moran isn't allowed to discuss strategy with officials at the DNC either. And the admakers and pollsters she hires will be required to sever any ties with the Kerry campaign or groups such as the Media Fund.
While so-called independent expenditure campaigns have been in existence for several years, political professionals in both parties say the law has tightened the restrictions on coordination.
That helps explain why she is likely to hire Democrats who worked for Kerry's campaign rivals - Axelrod for Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, for example; Plouffe and Murphy for Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri; pollster Geoff Garin for Wesley Clark.
"I don't know if it's lessened the money in politics, but it's certainly made the spending and raising of money a lot more complex," said Plouffe, who ran the DCCC when Moran worked there. "You have a lot more entities engaged. Everyone's trying to do what makes the most sense, but they really can't talk to each other."
Public financing of elections was is and always will be a joke.
"She's also worked for EMILY's List, an organization formed to promote the election of Democratic women who favor abortion rights."
It's unfortunate her mother didn't abort her. The world would have been much better off without the likes of her and Michael Moore.
Thanks for the info. I had no idea who she was.
Does anyone believe the lies anymore that there is no coordination? How stupid do they think we are?
Is she related to Congresscritter James Moron?
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