Jim Bopp has published the following letter in Roll Call. It does not appear on the newspaper’s website, but here it is (with permission of Roll Call):
- 527 Rules: Tempting But Not Needed
Emboldened by a Supreme Court victory in McConnell v. FEC upholding nearly every McCain-Feingold amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act, the
“reform” industry seeks to trick Republicans into supporting further restrictions on advocacy group participation. The purported targets of these new restrictions are newly created section 527 groups such as America Coming Together and the Media Fund, whose announced purpose is defeating President Bush. Republicans should not take this bait.
The reform groups’ argument is that these groups are “circumventing” McCain-Feingold by “attempting to replace political parties” by spending “soft money” on “federal election activities” that political parties may not do under McCain-Feingold. The reformers want to force these groups to register as political action committees and have them fined and punished. The Federal Election Commission has responded by considering new regulations and is considering several advisory opinion requests on this subject.
Republicans appear to be nibbling at this bait. Republican FEC Commissioner Michael Toner recently published a letter in Roll Call (“527 Rules Needed Now,” Jan. 27) expressing concern that “outside tax-exempt groups are seeking to essentially replicate, with soft-money funds, much of the issue advertising and voter-mobilization activities that the national parties financed with soft-money funds before the new law was passed.” The Republican National Committee filed FEC comments arguing that the political party restrictions on “federal election activities” should “be applied across the board.”
The FEC