Opening Up A Second Front

[khaosworks]

Hey, You Democrats Aren't Supposed To Help Each Other! By Mr. Terence Chua, Making His Way The Only Way He Knows How.

The Shadow Campaign
Democratic 527 organizations are showing what they can do -- which is a lot, for now.
March/April 2004 Issue

"President Bush. Remember the American dream? It's about hope, not fear. It's about more jobs at home, not tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas. It's about giving our children their chance, not our debt. It's about providing health care for people, not just profits. It's about fighting for the middle class, not special interests...."

"It's time to take our country back from corporate greed and make America work for every American."

The above is from a political ad that's part of a $5 million media buy focused on 17 states and funded by a Democratic advocacy group called the Media Fund. In terms of message, the ad is hardly exceptional in an election year. But it goes to the heart of the battle over political spending in the post-McCain-Feingold world. The Media Fund is one of the now-famous 527 organizations (named after their IRS designation) that, while barred by law from coordinating with the Democratic party, are mounting a kind of "shadow campaign" to take down George W. Bush

Many of the 527s involved in this latest push are staffed by big-name ghosts of past presidential and congressional campaigns. For instance, Jim Jordan, Kerry’s former campaign manager, is now a consultant to the Media Fund, and Harold Ickes, Clinton's former deputy chief of staff, heads it.

The rise of the 527 is a byproduct of the McCain-Feingold reform law, which put limits on the amount of soft money—money from corporations and unions—that could be donated to political parties. The groups can, and do, run almost all the elements of a political campaign. The Washington Post reports that liberal 527s have created a political machine that is essentially a parallel party, running expensive political ads, get-the-vote out campaigns, polling, research, rapid response, and fundraising.

More at the link. Mother Jones, by the way, is an absolutely gorgeously written and put together news magazine - it's the only one of those freebie subscriptions I get with Salon that I actually bothered to renew. But to discuss the news article...

I can imagine the extent of the Republican Party's rage. They've got this incredible amount of money in their war chest dedicated to producing ads that are poised to attack Kerry's character, his credibility, paint him as a Big-L Liberal, a weak sister and chortling at Kerry's lack of the same amounts of cash... and this happens. Democratic action groups running attack ads independent of Kerry. So, Kerry can disavow anything that's too extreme, making him look more moderate in the eyes of swing voters, and the rabid dogs of the left (i.e. people like me) get their voice and their chance to kick the GOP in the balls.

It's beautiful. And you can't help but think that the source of the Republican rage, the motivation behind them crying foul to the Federal Elections Commission, is that they didn't think of it first. Not that Republican 527s don't exist - they just aren't as well organized. They don't need to be, because of the Republican penchant of raising hard money. But it's not just the money, or the ads - it's the deniability that it sets up.

It's so elegant it almost makes you feel smug. It reminds me of that old Doonesbury cartoon of Cambodia complaining at the UN about Vietnamese aggression, and the Vietnamese delegate (Phred, B.D.'s enemy mine-type war buddy) responding unabashedly, "What can I say? We've got our act together." The Cambodian delegate responds, "Well, you don't have to be so cavalier about it..." "Look, there's no point being coy..."

As much as the GOP are whining about it... it's legal as long as there's no coordination between Kerry and the 527s. I mean, even if if the Republicans were the ones doing this I'd really have nothing substantive to bitch about, unless there actually was some behind the scenes that showed that they were pulling the 527s strings. And in this case, there's no real incentive for Kerry to do so! If there is any behind the scenes winkery going on, I'd advise them to stop it immediately. The system - opening up a new campaign front for the Republicans to worry about even if it's not "officially" allied, works as is.

As Harold Ickes, ex-Clinton deputy chief of staff and head of the Media Fund, puts it:

"Politically, we are trying to really highlight, underscore and push into sharp focus the policies of the Republicans. That may have a certain effect on the Bush or the Kerry campaign, but we are not involved in electing or defeating people. We are raising issues."

That's a very good message to impart, and it's an additional sign that the Kerry campaign has no worries about the 527s being off-message or too radical - The message is, it's not about beating Bush...

(oh God, you have no idea how close I came to creating a godawful pun there)

... and it's not about being partisan and beating the Republicans. It's about how Bush's brand of neoconservative Republicanism has hijacked the GOP and created a disaster that needs to be remedied. That kind of message actually might have a small possibility of winning moderate Republicans over to the Democratic side for this election. It's unlikely, but it's a fantasy people might want to think about. It'd be much more effective if another fantasy came to pass - the Kerry/McCain ticket, but that's not going to happen.

Nice fantasy, though.

Comments

[cellio]

Thanks for sharing this. I'm glad the 527s are doing this; maybe it'll help shine some light on the issues for people who usually vote without thinking much. We can hope, anyway.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Actually, the GOP are annoyed because it means that there's parity on the field. There was a lot of Gore-bashing in 2000 that didn't come from party HQ but instead came from groups like that. They did think of it first - do it too. They just didn't want the other side to use those tactics too.