Dems Cheat Again and Media Ignores

The Dems were the ones demanding for campaing finance reform and then formed soft money slush funds before the ink was dry on the law. Now they can't even comply with the law they wanted. This story came out Tues afternoon and as of 4:00 Wednesday there has been no mention of this in the NYTimes or Wash Post. Kevin

WASHINGTON – A pro-Democrat group that criticizes President Bush in its fund-raising letters is breaking the law in the types of contributions it uses to finance the mailings, campaign finance watchdog groups said in a complaint.

The three groups said America Coming Together should be using limited "hard money" donations, not unlimited contributions, to pay for the solicitations. The groups - Democracy 21, Center for Responsive Politics and Campaign Legal Center - planned to file the complaint on Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.

ACT has financed the mailings, possibly up to $1 million worth through March, with soft money, the groups say. Such unlimited donations can come from any source, including unions and corporations, but aren't supposed to be used for federal election activities.

"When Election Day is over, we will have defeated George W. Bush and elected progressive candidates all across the nation," ACT told prospective donors in one recent fund-raising letter. "The extraordinary effort we're undertaking is in response to the extraordinary damage Bush and his allies do, on a daily basis, to values we believe in and to people we care about."

The mailing also notes ACT's desire to defeat Republican members of Congress and GOP lawmakers at the state and local levels.

The watchdog groups contend that because no state and local candidates are named, and Bush, a federal candidate, is the only person on the ballot who is, such solicitations must be funded with hard money.

ACT "has illegally spent soft money on direct-mail public communications that attack and oppose President Bush," said Fred Wertheimer, head of Democracy 21.

ACT was created after the campaign finance law took effect in November 2002 barring the national Democratic and Republican parties from raising soft money. The group is focused on pro-Democratic get-out-the-vote activities in presidential battleground states, efforts the Democratic Party had used soft money to finance.