Posted by Juan Non-Volokh: Why Bush Bashes 527s: When President Bush signed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, he made clear that he did not care all that much about legal protection for political speech. (Ditto the Supreme Court when it upheld the law.) So no one should be surprised that Bush is now calling for an end to independent political advertisements, such as those run by "527" organizations. After all, eliminating these "shadowy" groups is [1]clearly in the President's political interest (contrary to the suggestions of [2]Matt Yglesias and [3]Amy Sullivan). While there are prominent GOP-leaning 527s, the vast majority of 527 money is flowing to anti-Bush organizations. As detailed on [4]OpenSecrets.org, most of the multi-million-dollar 527s are lined up against the President. Indeed, only one of the ten largest 527s, the [5]Club for Growth, is anti-Kerry. Yet much of the Club's money goes to support "pro-growth" House and Senate races and to defeat Republican lawmakers who vote to raise taxes. Yglesias cites to the National Federation of Republican Women, but they're only the 49th largest 527 listed by OpenSecrets.org. Losing the benefit of NFRW and other small groups would be a small price for the GOP to pay in return for eliminating the Media Fund, America Coming Together, and MoveOn.org -- just to name three of the largest 527s in the nation, each of which opposes Bush with sums that make NFRW's budget look like chump change. Let me be clear: I oppose the President's position on 527s. I am against most, if not all, limits on campaign speech -- including those by independent groups. The President was wrong to sign McCain-Feingold into law, and he is wrong again here. I would further argue that fewer donors would give to such independent groups -- and we'd have fewer "shadowy" ads -- if it were easier to give larger amounts directly to candidates or to provide traditional "soft money" contributions to political parties. President Bush's position strikes me as rank opportunism -- and it is so , in part, because 527 contributions have overwhelmingly benefitted his opposition.
References 1. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5537655/ 2. http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2004/08/index.html#003626 3. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_08/004563.php 4. http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtes.asp?level=C&cycle=2004 5. http://www.clubforgrowth.com/ _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://highsorcery.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
