Democrats set up shadow groups to raise soft money
They fear being swamped by rivals in 2004 elections
By Jim Vandehei, Washington Post, 5/7/2003
ASHINGTON -- Democrats are kicking off a backdoor way of financing their 2004 congressional campaigns today with the very type of unlimited donations from corporations, unions, and individuals that many party leaders had vowed to flush from the political system.
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The strategy involves setting up two new groups unmistakably aligned with the Democratic Party's longstanding campaign organizations for the House and Senate. Technically, the two groups are not arms of the Democratic Party, a key distinction, because the nation's new campaign finance law bars lawmakers from soliciting ''soft money,'' the unlimited money that politicians still crave.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, and minority whip Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, will headline a fund-raising event tonight at the Hotel George for a new group called the New House PAC.
Tonight, the group will raise ''hard money,'' a limited, regulated type of donation that lawmakers can legally solicit. But the group plans to ask donors for soft money later this year and to serve as a sort of shadow campaign committee for the Democratic Party, according to sources familiar with the effort.
The overt blessing of Pelosi, Hoyer, and other party leaders is crucial to the group, which hopes to convince potential donors that it is the new surrogate for the Democratic committees no longer allowed to take soft money.
Similarly, Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, and minority whip Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, are scheduled to headline a hard-money fund-raising event next week at the Phoenix Park Hotel in Washington for the Democratic Senate Majority Fund. The new group bills itself in literature sent to donors as a legal way to funnel soft money through a ''critical and, indeed, unique'' venture to elect Democrats to the Senate.
Winning the imprimatur of Daschle, Reid, and other top party members is vital to the group. It intends to operate as the all but official stand-in for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which for years was permitted to raise and spend soft money.
The message to potential donors, say those involved with the new organization, is that this is the best positioned of all the groups soliciting soft money to capture the attention and gratitude of powerful Democratic legislators.
The McCain-Feingold law, enacted last year with crucial support from Democratic lawmakers, barred the national political parties, including their House and Senate campaign committees, from raising soft money. Soft money supposedly is used only for party-building purposes such as voter registration, but it has often financed issue ads that attack congressional candidates without explicitly calling for their defeat.
The establishment of the two new fund-raising groups underscores top Democrats' determination to continue steering soft money to their causes.
Many GOP-leaning independent groups are poised to raise millions in soft money for the Republican agenda, and Democrats fear they will be financially swamped in next year's elections if they do not find ways to fight back.
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and coauthor of the campaign finance law, said: ''We all know that money is fungible in politics, so this isn't good.''
Last week, a three-judge panel struck down the ban on soft money for national political parties, but left in place a law that prohibits federal lawmakers from raising soft money themselves.
As a result, many legal specialists believe that congressional campaign committees, which are run by lawmakers, will find it difficult to impossible to raise soft money for the 2004 elections. The Supreme Court will have the final word, but it is unclear when the high court will take up the case.
This story ran on page A3 of the Boston Globe on 5/7/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
