GOP Alleges Campaign Finance Conspiracy

W A S H I N G T O N, March 31, 2004 -- Republicans and President Bush's re-election campaign accused Sen. John Kerry and Democratic interest groups of conspiring to violate election laws by illegally using hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of "soft money" donations to hasten the president's defeat.

The Republican National Committee plans to file an emergency complaint with the Federal Election Commission but urge the commission to quickly dismiss the complaint. The tactic would allow the RNC to seek more immediate relief from a federal judge, who could shut down the Democratic groups.

The volley of charges marks the latest in a long-simmering row between advocates of campaign finance reform and its opponents, although with this twist: the Republican Party and lawyers affiliated with the Bush campaign are seeking to enforce laws that they earlier vigorously opposed. The reason is the urgency of a nasty election battle between Bush and Kerry.

Bush's campaign has a decided fund-raising advantage under the new election laws. They've accumulated much more "hard money" — small contributions from individual citizens that can be used for specific campaign expenses. The Bush campaign has amassed more than $158 million in hard money to date — far more than Kerry.

The allegations, detailed in a 70-page complaint with 600 pages of supporting evidence, are among the most serious and detailed that have been levied against the Democratic interest groups, which are using "soft money" donations from unions and wealthy individuals to mobilize Democrats for November. There is no limit on how much soft money a donor can give, but the money cannot be directly spent on individual campaigns, including the presidential race.

The charges center on the political activity of several of the groups, known as 527s from the portion of the tax code under which they were organized.

The groups make no bones about their purpose: They want to erase the money gap between Bush and the Democrats and shift the issue terrain to favor Democratic candidates. Today, the RNC and the Bush campaign took them to task.

"They're perverting the election law," Marc Racicot, the chairman of President Bush's campaign, said of the groups.

Specifically, the complaint alleges that:

Groups like the Media Fund, which runs radio and TV advertisements, and Americans Coming Together (ACT), which registers voters, are raising and spending money to influence federal elections but refuse to abide by federal laws limiting their activities.

That the Media Fund, ACT and others illegally coordinate activities with Kerry's campaign.

And that Kerry's presidential campaign has therefore accepted what amounts to an illegal soft money contribution.

"John Kerry has become the biggest beneficiary of illegal soft money since Watergate," said Ben Ginsberg, a lawyer for Bush's re-election committee.

Kerry's campaign spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, said the charges were not true.

"We take the law very seriously," she said. "Republicans can't stand the fact the American people want change, so now they are playing politics with the law."

Following the law?

Under federal election law as revised by the latest wave of campaign finance legislation, any group that raises more than $1,000 to influence a federal election by supporting, defending or opposing a candidate must register with the Federal Election Commission and must abide by strict guidelines on how, where and when they can spend their money.

The 527s have argued that their mandate is based more broadly on influencing the issue agenda and therefore don't have to register. They contend that they are more properly considered non-profit groups.

"America Coming Together, The Media Fund and America Votes are law-abiding political organizations representing hundreds of thousands of Americans who are exercising their right to participate in their democracy," said Sarah Leonard, a spokeswoman for the groups. "This is vintage Republican intimidation. As usual it has nothing to do with the law and everything to do with political desperation," she said.

Outside groups of any stripe cannot coordinate with political campaigns, but most can coordinate with each other.

Ginsberg said Republicans had evidence that Media Fund ads mentioning Kerry's economic plan had arrived at television stations before the senator officially voiced his proposals — evidence, he said, of coordination.

That ad, which began airing on March 17, includes a line describing a portion of the plan related to businesses.

"Kerry's economic plan?" the narrator says. "Roll back tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent, helping pay for a middle-class tax cut. Don't reward corporations that export jobs overseas."

Since Kerry did not announce specific proposals relating to companies that outsource jobs until after the ad had already been made, the ad's creators must have had insider and advance knowledge about their content, Republicans allege.

Still, word of the tenor of Kerry's plan had circulated through media and Democratic circles and Media Fund officials say they based their ads on those reports.

Kerry's former campaign manager

Ginsberg said that Kerry's former campaign manager, Jim Jordan, was guilty of coordination because he used his knowledge and expertise as a former member of the senator's inner circle to influence how the Media Fund operated. That, Ginsberg said, was tantamount to coordination under federal law even if Jordan did not willfully provide relevant information.

In the past, Jordan has defended his activities as legal and above-board.

Today, he called the allegations "pitiful" and "nonsense."

Jordan was recruited to join the Media Fund when another candidate, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, was considered the front-runner.

Wes Boyd, a founder of MoveOn.org, another group the complaint alleges coordinates with the Kerry campaign, called the charges "baseless and irresponsible."

Ginsberg said that several other prominent Democrats, including New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, are affiliated with the Democratic Party and one of the 527 groups. Richardson is the chair of the Democratic National Convention and is also a part of a group known as Moving America Forward, which is targeted at Hispanic voters.

Activists on both sides have written to their faithful in recent days in hopes of winning the public opinion battle as April's FEC sessions near.

MoveOn's Boyd penned an e-mail to his members saying "operatives in Washington are displaying a terrifying disregard for the values of free speech and openness which underlie our democracy. Essentially, they are willing to pay any price to stop criticism of Bush administration policy." The note included materials to help supporters "make a public comment to the FEC before the comment period ends on April 9th. Your comment could be very important, because normally the FEC doesn't get much public feedback."

And on the right, conservative activists sent out an e-mail "alert" saying "the DEMOCRATS and their affiliated liberal groups (like MoveOn.org) are now finding ways to deliberately BREAK their own campaign finance reform laws … unless WE take action NOW to stop them." The e-mail urged readers to "send a message to the FEC, with copies sent to your congressman and senators, urging them to put a stop to 527 groups like MoveOn.org blatantly circumventing the new campaign finance laws."