Democrats fight fire with fire as the two factions of the corporate war party play musical chairs.
"Democrats take page from GOP playbook; Turn to super PACs to level fund-raising" October 25, 2011|By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON - John Kerry took to the Senate floor last year and passionately denounced the prospect of anonymous campaign contributions, labeling them an assault on the political system.
“I can’t think of anything that is less American,’’ declared the Massachusetts Democrat, “than secret money going secretly into campaigns to try to affect the choices of the American people.’’
At the time, many Democrats in the Senate agreed with Kerry. But times have changed in Washington with the advent of so-called super PACs.
Democrats in Congress, including Kerry and other influential senators, have joined their GOP colleagues in embracing this relatively new form of political action committee, which is allowed to accept checks from nonprofit groups and shell corporations whose sources of support are kept secret. Direct donors still must be identified.
This creates what some critics call a “Russian doll’’ system that effectively blocks public disclosure of certain high-dollar political patrons.
The surge in the formation of super PACs - which can solicit contributions of unlimited size - is a response to Supreme Court and Federal Election Commission rulings that kicked away many post-Watergate restrictions on political money. Republican groups, led by American Crossroads, a political organization with ties to GOP adviser and consultant Karl Rove, pioneered the use of unlimited campaign contributions and secret donors during the 2010 election campaign.
Didn't the scandals and Democrat takeover relegate the Bush bag man to the political wilderness?
Now congressional Democrats are trying to catch up, even though many of them, like Kerry, have spent years supporting legislation to reduce the influence of money in politics.
“We can’t unilaterally disarm,’’ a spokeswoman for Kerry, Jodi Seth, said last week, explaining why Kerry went from decrying the looser rules to helping Democrats raise money for Majority PAC, the Senate Democrats’ super PAC.
In a fund-raising e-mail Kerry wrote for the committee, the senator said as much: “This new organization has one mission: go head-to-head against the big money smear machines that Karl Rove and his cronies built last year to attack Democratic candidates across the country.’’
The “can’t-beat-em, so-join-em’’ attitude disappoints advocates who fight to reduce the influence of special-interest money on elections....
That's what has made the Democratic Party a shell of its former self.
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The top Democrat:
"FEC stalls on superPAC coordination" December 02, 2011|By Jack Gillum, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - On the whole, watchdogs have noted the blurring between superPACs and the candidates they support: former aides to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney are backing an outside group supportive of his White House run, and even President Obama’s former spokesman is heading up a Democratic-leaning PAC to boost his old boss’s re-election efforts.
And he already gets loads of campaign cash from Wall Street.
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And on the other side:
"Super PACs’ impact growing; Groups spend $7m in early-vote states Donors’ identities not yet public" December 20, 2011|By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff
Super PACs, the new campaign weapon of choice since last year’s Supreme Court ruling that struck down contribution limits on corporations, labor unions, and wealthy individuals, are playing an increasingly muscular role in the days before the first contests in the Republican presidential nominating contest.
With two weeks until the Iowa caucuses and three weeks until the New Hampshire primary, committees aligned with specific candidates have poured more than $7 million into ads in the early states.
The proliferation of these committees - which can solicit large contributions but cannot work directly with candidates - has allowed campaigns to conserve their resources as their proxies hit the airwaves in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and, in the latest development, Florida.
The extent to which the campaign financing environment has changed since the 2010 court ruling was driven home last week by a report on the website Politico indicating that Las Vegas casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson intends to donate $20 million to a committee supportive of former House speaker Newt Gingrich.
I don't think he ever wrote the check given Newt's cratering in the polls.
Which really calls into question the MSM polls when you think about it. The would say finicky undecideds, but that's coming from a lying, agenda-pushing, script-speaking media. What it makes you realize is everything I've said here: the numbers are literally made up.
Though Adelson denied he has made a specific commitment, let alone one for $20 million, the story illustrated how much influence even a single individual can potentially have following the Citizens United court case.
Restore Our Future, a committee supporting Mitt Romney, is leading the pack, spending more than $2.4 million on independent expenditures, mostly in Iowa and primarily attacking Gingrich, the latest of several candidates to challenge Romney for the front-runner’s perch.
Last week, the group expanded the war to Florida....
It really is a war media, complete with terminology.
Other super PACs that have been active in the GOP presidential contest, according to independent expenditure reports to the election commission, are:
Governor Rick Perry of Texas....
former governor of Utah Jon Huntsman....
former senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania....
President Obama....
How did he get in there?
Herman Cain....
Who?
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I noticed there was one candidate who didn't have a Super PAC behind him; I'll give you one guess which one.
