Spending Spree
The Washington Post has a report on what McCain-Feingold has brought about by limiting "soft money". A virtual forest of 527 groups has sprung up all over the political landscape and is wreaking havoc with local races. Enormous amount of money are being pumped into local races at a record pace. Many of the groups doing this are quite shadowy on both sides of the political aisle.
Politically active groups on both the left and the right are shelling out dollars faster than in any previous midterm election and focusing them intensely on the races that are up for grabs. Even with five weeks to go in the campaign, the $34 million in "independent expenditures" so far is nearly double the amount spent in the entire 2002 midterm election, according to PoliticalMoneyLine.com.
This year's figure includes spending by the parties' House and Senate campaign committees, which unlike in 2002 are no longer allowed to coordinate directly with candidates for major ad buys, and by the "527" groups that emerged after an overhaul of funding laws that year.
Independent spending by political organizations — such as the George Soros-funded liberal group America Coming Together and the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which took aim at Democratic nominee John F. Kerry's Vietnam War record — was a defining force in the 2004 presidential campaign. What's notable this time, with control of Congress and many governorships at stake, is how such spending has migrated to elections for lesser offices.
During the 2004 election, Democrats seemed to benefit most from independent spending. Now the balance appears to be tilting rightward: America Coming Together and its companion group, the Media Fund, are largely shuttered. Meanwhile, a leading backer of the Swift Boat group, Texas developer Bob J. Perry, has donated $5 million focusing on top GOP target races.
But in Maryland, as in some other places, Democrats are still benefiting. The Maryland Fund, a 527 led by several national Democratic operatives with ties to the state, started airing television and radio ads last week critical of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), who is being challenged by Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D). The ads seek to link Ehrlich to President Bush, whose approval ratings lag behind the governor's in the state.
Stephen R. Weissman, associate director for policy at the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute, predicted that "in some key races, this outsider spending will be decisive."
Expenditures by outside interest groups have ballooned largely in reaction to the 2002 law banning "soft money," the uncapped contributions that previously filled the coffers of both political parties. Once those unlimited donations were outlawed for the parties, lobby groups started handing out the big money.
If anyone needed proof that McCain-Feingold was a disastrous piece of legislation, this is it. Political expenditures have actually increased with even less oversight than was possible before the so-called reforms. This dismal piece of legislation should be repealed.
