The Command Post
2004 US Presidential Election
« Kerry to return donation from son of former S Korean president | Main | NYT: 865 South Figueroa vs. 146 Central Park West »
June 23, 2004
Kerry | FEC complaint filed against " America Coming Together"

AP’s Sharon Theimer reports that three groups have filed a complaint with the FEC against “America Coming Together,” the 527 run by former Kerry campaign manager Jim Jordan:

A pro-Democratic group that opposes President Bush in its fund-raising solicitations is the target of a complaint by campaign finance watchdogs who argue the organization is spending illegally on its mailings.

America Coming Together should be using limited “hard money” donations, not unlimited contributions known as soft money, to pay for the fund-raising letters, the three groups said in the complaint filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.

The groups are Democracy 21, the Center for Responsive Politics and the Campaign Legal Center.

ACT has financed the mailings - possibly up to $1 million worth through March - with soft money, the groups say. Such unlimited donations can come from any source, including unions and corporations, but aren’t supposed to be used for federal election activities.



Posted by Martin at June 23, 2004 11:08 AM | TrackBack
Comments

I’ve said for years that capmaign finance reform will never work if you insist on treating the symptoms instead of the disease.

If you want real refore, ban TV & Radio advertisements. Force political and advocacy ads into the print media, where the costs are orders of magnitude lower.

Posted by: eric at June 23, 2004 02:28 PM

I think the TV and Radio media would rail against that as unfair.

I’d rather see public funding of campaigns, with each campaign on an equal footing. They would have to use their money very carefully, and be very explicit in their messages. I’d like to see advocacy groups should stay out of campaign advertising — their presence would mean influence is still being sold. I must confess, though, I don’t see how this could be done without going against the First Amendment.

There is no easy solution.

The best thing to happen in recent years, IMHO, are the watchdog groups. However, the ‘press’ stinks at connecting the dots these organizations provide. Both parties are vulnerable in that respect.

Posted by: Indie2004 at June 23, 2004 03:07 PM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (Click here should you choose to sign out.)

As you post your comment, please mind our simple comment policy: we welcome all perspectives, but require that comments be both civil and respectful. We also ask that you avoid the extensive use of profanity, racist terms (neither of which we consider civil or respectful), and other boorish language.

We reserve the right to delete any comment, and to prohibit you from commenting on this site, if we feel you have broached this policy. As a courtesy, we will first send you an email noting a violation so you understand the boundaries. This will occur only once, however, and should we ban you from our comment forums we expect that ban to be permanent.

We also will frown upon those who suggest that we ban other individuals for voicing unpopular opinions, should those opinions be voiced in a civil and respectful manner. The point of our comment threads is to provide a forum for spirited though civil and respectful discourse … it is not to provide a forum in which everyone will agree with your point of view.

If you can live by these rules, welcome aboard. If not, then we’re sorry it didn’t work out, and thanks for visiting The Command Post.


Remember me?

(You may use HTML tags for style)