Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

�

Click here for the Secret Decoder Ring to this issue!

Hardly Enough Money

Monday, April 2, 2001

Campaign Finance Reform: During the 2000 election cycle Republican entities raised about $447 million in hard dollars -- $1,000 per individual per election cycle and all the rest, and raised about $244 million in soft money.

Democratic entities raised only about $270 million in hard dollars ($243 million in soft).

That means the GOP collected $177 million more of the "good" campaign money than the Democrats and they were about tied in the "bad" campaign money category.

If the new, doubling of the limits are equally distributed at the same levels, then in the 2002 cycle the GOP will be able to raise $354 million MORE than the Democrats: $874 million to $540 million.

Moreover, the hard money raised by the GOP represented over 65% of all funds raised. The hard money raised by the Dems represents slightly more than half of all their money.

Wait! Why are we opposed to this?

If the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee will be out of the soft money business, the hard dollar phone calls, letters, receptions, and dinner will be all the more important and frequent.

On the other hand, many state party organizations - Republican and Democratic - will still be permitted to take and spend soft money on non-federal candidates - everyone from city council members to Governors.

If I were asked, I would develop a plan in selected states: States, perhaps, which have a U.S. Senate seats in play; or states which, perhaps, contain Congressional Districts which are in play; either of which might tip control to one side or the other.

I would develop - starting right this second - a program to have, for example, the Republican Party of the State of South Freedonia file the appropriate papers to form, in essence, an independent Republican Party of the State of South Freedonia - State Candidates Division (SCD)

That SCD would still be permitted to accept soft money - huge amounts of soft money - to do the standard party-building activities: List building, registration drives, voter identification, and (this is the secret to the success of the plan) voter turn-out.

The SCD would use soft money to run ads designed to energize its base in support of STATE candidates only. No problemo with McCain-Feingold-Shays-Meehan.

However, every political operative in the country will be busily running the numbers to see exactly where, within each of these states, the turnout in support of state and local candidates will do the most good for the Federal candidates who will also benefit.

People don't often go to the polls to vote for their State Rep and ignore their candidate for Congress or U.S. Senate. Except, of course, in Palm Beach County where the term "early voting" means "get me out of here before they run out of the meat loaf special at Sanderson's Deli."

This is just one idea that I happened to think of while watching the Sunday shows yesterday. It proves one will not have to be Randolph Duke (the designer, not the Ralph Bellamy character) to figure out about a dozen ways to skirt these laws.

The Left is trembling with anguish over the Bush Administration's undoing some of the Executive Orders promulgated by Bill Clinton. Here's the question: If things like arsenic levels in water are such threats to Western civilization, why did Clinton wait until the very last second to issue the order? Was it any less dangerous in 1997? Or 1998? Or 1999?

Slobodan Milosevic was arrested over the weekend after being holed up in his house for about a day.

This news came as a great relief to the Bush Defense Department which had been busily trying to find out what had happened to those big speakers through which they had played hard rock music causing Manuel Noriega to run screaming from his home singing, "I Surrender, Dear."

A letter was being drafted to MSS Clinton to see if they were in her house next to the sofas, chairs, carpets, flatware, and a small (but fast) executive Air Force jet. That letter is now moot.

Relieved sources at the Pentagon told Mullings, "Even if we could have found the speakers, the new rules imposed upon Napster would have prevented us from downloading any Metallica songs to boom in there."

Current Issue | Secret Decoder Ring | Past Issues | Email Rich | Rich Who?