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Guest MikeSC

Well, Kerry Has This Problem Licked

By Guest MikeSC, in Current Events

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Guest MikeSC   

Guest MikeSC
Posted
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and his Democratic allies have raised almost twice as much money as the Bush-Cheney campaign so far this year, according to recent government filings.

 

The data show that despite the fears of many Democrats, their White House nominee likely will not be significantly hurt by his funding disparity compared to President Bush this election year. The figures also call into question the effectiveness of campaign-finance reform and whether it has in fact wrung special-interest money out of politics.

 

Twenty-one of the largest Democratic-allied 527 groups — named after a section of the tax code — raised nearly $57 million in the first three months of this year, according to reports filed last week with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and sorted by fundraising watchdog groups such as PoliticalMoneyLine.com and the Center for Public Integrity.

 

Yesterday, at a closed-door meeting of trade associations hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on get-out-the-vote practices, Ken Mehlman, manager of the Bush-Cheney campaign, decried the impact of the soft-money groups.

 

“Thanks to 527s, we will be outspent by the Democrats,” said Mehlman, according to a participant who took notes of the meeting. “MoveOn.org is a huge threat and has hurt the president. Every action makes a difference.”

 

So far this year, the groups have spent close to $52 million, much of it on television ads and other campaign activities designed to affect the presidential race and other federal contests. At the beginning of April, the Kerry campaign announced it had raised $50 million during the first three months of the year.

 

Approximately $14 million of the $15 million raised by the Joint Victory Campaign, a joint fundraising committee for the Media Fund and Americans Coming Together (ACT), was disbursed to those to groups, according to Political MoneyLine.com, making their fundraising totals appear greater.

 

Nevertheless, the groups’ fundraising total for 2004 is likely to come close to matching the Bush-Cheney campaign.

 

An official with the president’s re-election campaign said it had raised a few million over $50 million during the first three months of the year. The campaign will disclose its Federal Election Commission (FEC) report for March today.

 

The 21 left-leaning groups surveyed matched in three months what they raised in all of 2003.

 

Almost half of the groups were formed after Congress passed landmark campaign-finance-reform legislation that banned the national parties from raising and spending unregulated contributions known as soft money.

 

The constellation of groups includes the Joint Victory Campaign 2004, ACT, the Media Fund, MoveOn.org Voter Fund, the New Democratic Network, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State,

County and Municipal Employees.

 

By contrast, the few Republican-aligned 527s in operation that are expected to affect the White House and congressional races have raised paltry amounts.

 

The most successful group, The Club for Growth, raised $953,000 during the first quarter, bringing its fundraising total for the cycle to $3.6 million. The Leadership Forum, a group that GOP strategists had envisioned as the “go-to” fundraising organization for House Republicans raised a mere $101,000 since January. That total put it far behind the College Republican National Committee’s $1.1 million effort. As it turns out, the college Republican group was one of the most prolific GOP-inclined soft-money groups.

 

The Republican Governors Association (RGA) raised $5 million in the first quarter, but the new campaign-finance law makes it extremely difficult for the RGA to have an impact on federal races because it is a state political party and subject to stricter rules than other 527s.

 

Wealthy individuals and labor unions, many of the same donors who gave millions of dollars in unregulated soft money to the Democratic Party when they were allowed, have fueled the surge in liberal 527 fundraising.

 

Hollywood producer Steve Bing, head of Shangri La Entertainment, gave $5 million to the Joint Victory Campaign, Peter Lewis, president of Progressive Corp., gave $2 million to the fund, and Daniel Abraham, president of Slim-Fast, gave $500,000. The Media Fund received $1 million from the service employees union and $750,000 from the American Federation of Teachers. SEIU gave $500,000 to ACT.

 

Billionaire financier George Soros, who has become a sort of boogeyman in the eyes of Republicans, who frequently cite his publicly stated desire to spend millions to defeat Bush, gave $1 million to the MoveOn.org Voter Fund and $300,000 to campaign for America’s Future.

 

The explosion of 527 fundraising could also have a significant effect on congressional races. Presidential battleground states such as Florida, Pennsylvania and Washington have competitive Senate races.

 

“I think it’s something we have to be concerned about,” said Dan Allen, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Allen noted that NRSC has two and a half times as much cash on hand as its Democratic counterpart.

 

The torrid fundraising pace of Kerry and his allies gives new urgency to GOP efforts to halt the bulk of these fundraising efforts through either the FEC rulemaking process or a federal court order. Republicans contend that by relying on outside 527 groups Democrats are breaking the law and participating in a massive conspiracy.

 

But those GOP efforts are faltering. After holding two long days of hearings on 527s last week, members of the FEC said it was doubtful that they would be able to adopt new rules for the groups by the May 13 target date.

 

“It’s clear from the discussion that nobody knows what to do,” said Bob Bauer, an election lawyer with Perkins Coie, who represents ACT and testified last week before the FEC.

 

And the commission has not formally considered a complaint filed last month by the Republican National Committee and the Bush-Cheney campaign. Republicans had requested the agency consider the complaint at a closed-door executive session scheduled for April 13. The session was canceled and the next one is scheduled for April 27.

http://thehill.com/news/042004/kerry.aspx

 

Gee, and some people thought the McCain-Feingold bill might not improve anything.

-=Mike

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Dr. Tyler; Captain America    0

Dr. Tyler; Captain America
Posted

There's hardly this massive fundraising rush for the 527's, as it's being portrayed. Even though almost their entire budget is based on advertizing, they're still running on ~$12 million or so (I know that's the figure for moveon.org, anyways).

 

What's the point of this thread, anyway? Bush raises a lot of money. He's currently wasting it. Kerry is getting it. Big deal, we already knew that.

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Guest MikeSC   

Guest MikeSC
Posted
There's hardly this massive fundraising rush for the 527's, as it's being portrayed. Even though almost their entire budget is based on advertizing, they're still running on ~$12 million or so (I know that's the figure for moveon.org, anyways).

 

What's the point of this thread, anyway? Bush raises a lot of money. He's currently wasting it. Kerry is getting it. Big deal, we already knew that.

Bush is COMPLETELY following the rules. Kerry is using loopholes. As most anybody expected the Dems to do.

-=Mike

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Guest MikeSC   

Guest MikeSC
Posted
Bush is COMPLETELY following the rules. Kerry is using loopholes.

 

Back it up.

 

Kerry has nothing to do with the 527s working on his behalf.

Oh lord, how naive are you?

-=Mike

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Guest MikeSC   

Guest MikeSC
Posted
So, smarmy insinuations are enough to incriminate a presidential candidate?

 

Glad I found out!

Oh, I'm sorry --- I'm sure Kerry and the DNC has NO plans of co-ordinating ANYTHING with all of the groups raising money to "beat Bush". Yeah, THAT's the ticket!

 

And I'm sure Clinton's fundraising in 1996 was ALSO completely on-the-level.

 

Heck, for a party that claims to not have tons of rich donors, it does seem that Dems have the bigger problem with campaign finance violations for Presidential races.

-=Mike

...You know, if they can't begin to follow the rules, why in the heck do the Dems want to pass these idiotic laws so badly?

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Dr. Tyler; Captain America    0

Dr. Tyler; Captain America
Posted
So, smarmy insinuations are enough to incriminate a presidential candidate?

 

Glad I found out!

Oh, I'm sorry --- I'm sure Kerry and the DNC has NO plans of co-ordinating ANYTHING with all of the groups raising money to "beat Bush". Yeah, THAT's the ticket!

 

And I'm sure Clinton's fundraising in 1996 was ALSO completely on-the-level.

 

Heck, for a party that claims to not have tons of rich donors, it does seem that Dems have the bigger problem with campaign finance violations for Presidential races.

-=Mike

...You know, if they can't begin to follow the rules, why in the heck do the Dems want to pass these idiotic laws so badly?

It's great that you make these allegations with absolutely NO PROOF.

 

That's all.

 

Really.

 

I don't really feel like stooping to your level and doing the same to Bush. It's too early in the campaign season for me to really care; you're just being an incomprehensible partisan boobface for absolutely no reason, and I decided to call you on it for once.

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Guest MikeSC   

Guest MikeSC
Posted
It's great that you make these allegations with absolutely NO PROOF.

 

That's all.

 

Really.

Hmm, Bush conspiracy theories aren't that bad --- but simply pointing out that Kerry, the DNC, and DEMOCRAT-SUPPORTIVE GROUPS are in cahoots is just BEYOND the pale of logical thought.

I don't really feel like stooping to your level and doing the same to Bush.

No --- you CAN'T point to ANY fund-raising issues around Bush. You don't because they do not exist.

It's too early in the campaign season for me to really care; you're just being an incomprehensible partisan boobface for absolutely no reason, and I decided to call you on it for once.

And you're being such a partisan hack here that James Carville would be embarrassed for you.

-=Mike

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Jobber of the Week    0

Jobber of the Week
Posted

Heck, for a party that claims to not have tons of rich donors, it does seem that Dems have the bigger problem with campaign finance violations for Presidential races.

                            -=Mike

...You know, if they can't begin to follow the rules, why in the heck do the Dems want to pass these idiotic laws so badly?

It's great that you make these allegations with absolutely NO PROOF.

 

That's all.

 

Really.

Hi there.

 

 

http://www.fundrace.org/moneyindex.html

 

Far right column.

 

Thanks.

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Guest MikeSC   

Guest MikeSC
Posted
they would have one confused kid

Well, I've heard that Tyler DOES have a nice ass --- if one was into asses and all. :)

-=Mike

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Dr. Tyler; Captain America    0

Dr. Tyler; Captain America
Posted
they would have one confused kid

Well, I've heard that Tyler DOES have a nice ass --- if one was into asses and all. :)

-=Mike

Damn right I do!

 

...

 

 

 

....

 

 

 

Okay, I was about to post a smarmy article about Kerry releasing his full military records to the chagrin of the Bush administration, but I've decided not. :)

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Guest MikeSC   

Guest MikeSC
Posted
Well, I've heard that Tyler DOES have a nice ass --- if one was into asses and all. :)

            -=Mike

But that would mean an underlying gay psychological complex, would it not?

I was wondering why anybody would tell me about Tyler's buttocks.

-=Mike

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