Post by jannikki on Mar 23, 2006 17:00:38 GMT -4
Soros, Big Democratic Donors Targeted by Republicans (Update1)
March 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. House Democrats may have to pay a steep price to enact legislation overhauling lobbying rules: agreeing to restrict donations by some of their biggest backers.
Republicans have proposed a $5,000 cap on federal campaign donations to independent groups known as ``527 committees,'' as part of lobbying legislation soon to be taken up by Congress. The provision could curtail a source of funding from donors such as billionaire investor George Soros that provided tens of millions of dollars to Democratic-leaning groups in the 2004 elections.
Democrats have made allegations of Republican wrongdoing a central theme of this year's campaigns; opposing the ethics legislation because of the 527 provision may leave them open to charges they're not serious about the issue, even after scandals involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Representative Randy Cunningham, a California Republican imprisoned for taking bribes.
``They can't oppose it,'' Linda Fowler, a government professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, said of the Democrats. ``They can't simultaneously claim there is a `culture of corruption' in Washington that justifies voters throwing Republicans out, and then oppose a provision like that.''
Supporters of the lobbying overhaul say the issue of regulating 527 groups -- which are named after the Internal Revenue Service section under which they fall -- should be voted on separately. Otherwise, they say, it may create enough opposition to kill the ethics measure.
`Poison Pill'
``I don't want to see a poison pill that ends up being an excuse for members to vote against lobbying reform,'' said Representative Martin Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat.
In the 2004 presidential campaign, Democratic-leaning 527 groups such as the Soros-backed America Coming Together outspent Republican-leaning groups by $100 million, enabling Democrats to build a campaign treasury almost as big as that of the Republicans for the first time since 1992.
Soros, the 75-year-old chairman of New York-based Soros Fund Management LLC contributed $27 million to Democratic 527 groups in 2004, more than any other donor. Soros spokesman Michael Vachon declined to comment.
At the same time, Bob Perry, a Texas builder, gave $8 million to Republican groups, including $4.5 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that challenged the war record of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate.
Taking Up Legislation
The Senate is scheduled to take up ethics legislation next week, and advocates of stronger lobbying laws, such as Public Citizen and Common Cause, are meeting with Democratic aides this week to urge them to block efforts to include the 527 measure.
The House is scheduled to vote on its ethics legislation early next month. Included in the package proposed last week by the Republican leadership are provisions banning lawmakers from taking privately funded trips until after the November elections; preventing lobbyists from riding along when lawmakers fly on corporate jets; and requiring lobbyists to file quarterly electronic reports rather than submit paper documents twice a year, among other measures.
While members of both parties generally agree that campaign- finance regulations should be handled separately from lobbying issues, the Republicans made an exception for 527s.
The 527 groups ``in a lot of instances indirectly lobby Congress, so we want to bring them into the fold in terms of who's giving and how much,'' said Jo Maney, a spokeswoman for House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier of California, the measure's chief sponsor.
Limiting Donations
The 527 provision would limit annual donations to $5,000 to any such group involved in a federal election and $25,000 to a 527 involved in state or local elections.
Contributions to independent political groups more than doubled in 2004 to $583 million since a 2002 law that banned unlimited corporate, union and individual contributions to the political parties.
Even though Republicans have traditionally raised more money in election campaigns, Democrats have been the top recipients of 527 funds. That's partly because their biggest allies, such as labor unions, helped fund groups including America Coming Together, which was founded by the former AFL-CIO political director, Steve Rosenthal.
Corporations, among the Republicans' top givers, have often declined to donate to the 527s because they couldn't influence how the independent groups spent the money, said Kent Cooper, co- founder of PoliticalMoneyLine, a Washington group that tracks campaign contributions.
McCain, Feingold
The authors of the 2002 law -- Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, and Representatives Meehan and Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican -- have introduced separate legislation to restrict 527 groups. It would treat them as corporate or union political action committees, capping individual donations to them at $5,000 and banning contributions from corporate or union treasuries.
Shays and Meehan have also gone to court to force the Federal Election Commission to regulate 527s.
``We shouldn't even need a law,'' Shays said of the 527 measure in an interview today. ``The FEC should simply bring it under the campaign-finance overview. The FEC is putting a blind eye to it.''
Candice Nelson, chairwoman of the political science department at Washington-based American University, said the Republicans proposed the 527 provision as part of the broader lobbying legislation to ensure that new lobbying rules never become law.
``This is just a ploy,'' Nelson said. ``My guess is this is a way to kill the whole thing. No one's going to support this.''
Feingold agreed the two issues should be separate. ``Sometimes you say the perfect shouldn't be the enemy of the good,'' he said.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 23, 2006 14:39 EST
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=au9bhRhsCcmI&refer=us
March 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. House Democrats may have to pay a steep price to enact legislation overhauling lobbying rules: agreeing to restrict donations by some of their biggest backers.
Republicans have proposed a $5,000 cap on federal campaign donations to independent groups known as ``527 committees,'' as part of lobbying legislation soon to be taken up by Congress. The provision could curtail a source of funding from donors such as billionaire investor George Soros that provided tens of millions of dollars to Democratic-leaning groups in the 2004 elections.
Democrats have made allegations of Republican wrongdoing a central theme of this year's campaigns; opposing the ethics legislation because of the 527 provision may leave them open to charges they're not serious about the issue, even after scandals involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Representative Randy Cunningham, a California Republican imprisoned for taking bribes.
``They can't oppose it,'' Linda Fowler, a government professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, said of the Democrats. ``They can't simultaneously claim there is a `culture of corruption' in Washington that justifies voters throwing Republicans out, and then oppose a provision like that.''
Supporters of the lobbying overhaul say the issue of regulating 527 groups -- which are named after the Internal Revenue Service section under which they fall -- should be voted on separately. Otherwise, they say, it may create enough opposition to kill the ethics measure.
`Poison Pill'
``I don't want to see a poison pill that ends up being an excuse for members to vote against lobbying reform,'' said Representative Martin Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat.
In the 2004 presidential campaign, Democratic-leaning 527 groups such as the Soros-backed America Coming Together outspent Republican-leaning groups by $100 million, enabling Democrats to build a campaign treasury almost as big as that of the Republicans for the first time since 1992.
Soros, the 75-year-old chairman of New York-based Soros Fund Management LLC contributed $27 million to Democratic 527 groups in 2004, more than any other donor. Soros spokesman Michael Vachon declined to comment.
At the same time, Bob Perry, a Texas builder, gave $8 million to Republican groups, including $4.5 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that challenged the war record of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate.
Taking Up Legislation
The Senate is scheduled to take up ethics legislation next week, and advocates of stronger lobbying laws, such as Public Citizen and Common Cause, are meeting with Democratic aides this week to urge them to block efforts to include the 527 measure.
The House is scheduled to vote on its ethics legislation early next month. Included in the package proposed last week by the Republican leadership are provisions banning lawmakers from taking privately funded trips until after the November elections; preventing lobbyists from riding along when lawmakers fly on corporate jets; and requiring lobbyists to file quarterly electronic reports rather than submit paper documents twice a year, among other measures.
While members of both parties generally agree that campaign- finance regulations should be handled separately from lobbying issues, the Republicans made an exception for 527s.
The 527 groups ``in a lot of instances indirectly lobby Congress, so we want to bring them into the fold in terms of who's giving and how much,'' said Jo Maney, a spokeswoman for House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier of California, the measure's chief sponsor.
Limiting Donations
The 527 provision would limit annual donations to $5,000 to any such group involved in a federal election and $25,000 to a 527 involved in state or local elections.
Contributions to independent political groups more than doubled in 2004 to $583 million since a 2002 law that banned unlimited corporate, union and individual contributions to the political parties.
Even though Republicans have traditionally raised more money in election campaigns, Democrats have been the top recipients of 527 funds. That's partly because their biggest allies, such as labor unions, helped fund groups including America Coming Together, which was founded by the former AFL-CIO political director, Steve Rosenthal.
Corporations, among the Republicans' top givers, have often declined to donate to the 527s because they couldn't influence how the independent groups spent the money, said Kent Cooper, co- founder of PoliticalMoneyLine, a Washington group that tracks campaign contributions.
McCain, Feingold
The authors of the 2002 law -- Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, and Representatives Meehan and Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican -- have introduced separate legislation to restrict 527 groups. It would treat them as corporate or union political action committees, capping individual donations to them at $5,000 and banning contributions from corporate or union treasuries.
Shays and Meehan have also gone to court to force the Federal Election Commission to regulate 527s.
``We shouldn't even need a law,'' Shays said of the 527 measure in an interview today. ``The FEC should simply bring it under the campaign-finance overview. The FEC is putting a blind eye to it.''
Candice Nelson, chairwoman of the political science department at Washington-based American University, said the Republicans proposed the 527 provision as part of the broader lobbying legislation to ensure that new lobbying rules never become law.
``This is just a ploy,'' Nelson said. ``My guess is this is a way to kill the whole thing. No one's going to support this.''
Feingold agreed the two issues should be separate. ``Sometimes you say the perfect shouldn't be the enemy of the good,'' he said.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 23, 2006 14:39 EST
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=au9bhRhsCcmI&refer=us