Republicans say local Democrats broke campaign law
Five of the big contributors are from the Seattle area: Costco co-founders Jeff Brotman and James Sinegal, software entrepreneur and environmental philanthropist Paul Brainerd, investor James Roush and RealNetworks founder Rob Glaser.
All have made significant contributions to so-called independent "527" organizations financing election-year media campaigns. Republicans say the groups, including MoveOn.org and America Coming Together, are illegally coordinating efforts to help Democrat John Kerry's presidential campaign.
Glaser has given nearly $1 million, making him the fourth-largest individual donor in the country to 527 groups, according to figures compiled by the nonpartisan PoliticalMoneyLine.
While disputes over campaign-finance law are common in a presidential-election year, what's unusual about the Republican complaint, filed March 31 with the Federal Election Commission, is that it targets individual donors as well as the groups.
"These are all people who are so sophisticated they know what the law is, so they knowingly wrote out a check that was excessive under federal law," said Benjamin Ginsberg, general counsel for the Bush re-election campaign.
The Seattle-area donors named in the complaint could not be reached for comment. Seattle attorney and environmental activist Peter Goldman, who gave $150,000 to America Coming Together but was not named, says everyone who gave was assured by the group's attorneys that the donations and expenditures "met the spirit and letter of the law."
"I doubt that anyone forked over that kind of money without it being known it was legal," Goldman said.
A leader of one of the groups accused the GOP of trying to scare off would-be contributors.
"The RNC strategy is clearly to chill contributor support for issue groups opposing Bush administration policy," said Wes Boyd, president of MoveOn.org's Voter Fund, which is named in the Republican complaint. "But attempts to intimidate are simply not working, and maybe even backfiring. People seem even more motivated to give when they hear that the RNC is pursuing intimidation. Americans don't like thugs and bullies."
The Republicans' complaint charges that the Kerry campaign and the independent Democratic political organizations are violating federal law by coordinating media campaigns against Bush.
Hearings on 527 groups
FEC hearings yesterday and today focus on rules for how 527s, used by both major parties, can raise and spend money.
The FEC signaled yesterday it is unlikely to curb 527 groups, named after a section in the IRS code, in time to affect this year's election. The panel — three Republicans and three Democrats — indicated it will be difficult, if not impossible, to line up the necessary votes to impose regulations on the groups. The panel is scheduled to act on the rules May 13.
New regulations wouldn't take effect until late summer.
The GOP says that under the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law, the 527 groups cannot collect unlimited donations if the money is used to "promote or support" a candidate or "attack or oppose" a candidate.
If Democratic groups want to finance TV ads attacking Bush, Republicans argue, the groups must register with the FEC as political-action committees and limit donations to $5,000.
The McCain-Feingold law prohibited political parties from collecting unlimited "soft money" donations that could be used to help campaigns.
The Kerry campaign has called the RNC complaint frivolous. The groups defend their fund raising and spending, and say they operate independently of Kerry's campaign and the Democratic Party.
Democrats have pioneered the use of 527 groups this presidential-campaign cycle. There are well-financed groups headed by well-known operatives, as well as smaller organizations that have collected hundreds of millions of dollars from liberal organizations and wealthy individuals.
The groups include America Coming Together, MoveOn.org, The Media Fund and Joint Victory Campaign 2004. The groups say they don't coordinate illegally, and do not violate the prohibition on "express advocacy" of the election or defeat of any candidate, though they have paid for millions of dollars' worth of ads critical of Bush.
Earlier criticism
Nonpartisan campaign-finance watchdogs have criticized the 527 groups as a way to get around restrictions in the McCain-Feingold law.
The Center for Responsive Politics filed an FEC complaint in January against America Coming Together.
That complaint did not include individual donors as respondents, according to Paul Sanford, the center's general counsel.
"In most instances the more sophisticated actor is the recipient" of donations, Sanford said. That's why the group collecting donations and the candidate ultimately benefiting are usually the targets of complaints filed with the FEC.
But Republicans, Sanford said, make a valid point in saying veteran donors "ought to have known" what the law allows.
He said it would be disingenuous for the donors to claim their money was not supposed to be used to specifically target Bush when "these are people who have publicly stated or publicly demonstrated that they're interested in affecting the outcome of the presidential race."
The named donors are mostly well established as major Democratic backers. Among the 25 individuals listed on the Republican FEC complaint — there are also two corporations — are George Soros, an international financier who has given more than $6.5 million to 527 groups; and Hollywood producer Steven Bing, who has given more than $3 million.
The local donors are all generous Democratic givers. In addition to his $745,000 to America Coming Together and $250,000 to America Votes, Glaser, CEO and chairman of RealNetworks, has given in the past year to Democratic congressional candidates around the country and to the Democrats' House and Senate campaign committees.
Roush, a Medina investor, has become active in Democratic campaigns and environmental causes. He and his wife, Cynthia Wayburn, each donated $45,000 to Joint Victory Campaign 2004.
Seattle attorney Goldman thinks the complaint by the GOP and the Bush campaign is a sign they are worried about prodigious Democratic fund raising this year.
"These guys are just crying foul because they didn't expect the Democratic side to have any money to do this stuff," Goldman said. "It kind of upsets them a little bit that maybe the playing field will be even."
David Postman: 360-943-9882 or dpostman@seattletimes.com
Information from USA Today is included in this report.
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