Campaign finance backers brace for tough election night

Advocates for greater limits on campaign finance are bracing
themselves for major losses on Tuesday.

The anticipated losses will cap a year in which the Supreme
Court unraveled major portions of the last two decades of the advocates’ work.

{mosads}Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who played a leading role in passing campaign finance reform legislation, is a clear underdog in his reelection race. A CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation poll released two weeks ago had the three-term incumbent trailing businessman Ron Johnson, 52 to 44 percent.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who strongly opposed that bill, has an outside chance to become majority leader. McConnell’s GOP conference is expected to grow by at least six seats.

Republicans generally oppose campaign-finance restrictions, and a GOP takeover of the House would serve as a roadblock to any effort to pass campaign finance measures.

And just as an election marked by hundreds of millions of dollars of
undisclosed political spending comes to a close, the Supreme Court
will decide as early as Monday whether to review another major
challenge to campaign finance disclosure laws.

A suit filed by SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission takes issue with rules
forcing like-minded individuals to register with the federal
government and form Political Action Committees (PACs) if they want to
pool their funds and buy ads that support or oppose particular
candidates.

In March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled the government could not limit contributions to groups like SpeechNow.org, but upheld the requirement that the group become a PAC in order to spend money on political advertisements.

If the Citizens United ruling is any indication, the Supreme Court
could view the PAC issue differently, and advocates for tougher
campaign finance laws are urging the high court to uphold the D.C.
Circuit appeals court ruling.

“The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC was an
endorsement by eight justices of the value of political transparency,
and we hope that the Court maintains its strong support of campaign
finance disclosure in the SpeechNow.org case,” said Tara Malloy of the
Campaign Legal Center.

SpeechNow defends its challenge to PAC rules by arguing that laws
requiring likeminded individuals to form the committees subject them
to onerous rules and regulations and infringes on free speech.

“In a free country, citizens should not have to register with
government bureaucrats and comply with onerous regulations just to
speak,” said Bradley A. Smith, a former FEC chairman and chairman of
the conservative Center for Competitive Politics. “Americans should
not have to disclose broad, non-campaign activities to the government,
and they should not have to get the government’s permission to
disband.”

For instance, PACs must appoint treasurers who are legally responsible
for complying with federal law; they may spend money only from
designated bank accounts; and they must fill out disclosure forms and
detailed schedules on a regular basis and disclose the money they
raise or spend for any purpose.

SpeechNow’s executives also are taking aim at Feingold directly by
running an ad blaming him for the deficit and taking him to task for
being the father of campaign regulations, arguing that he “attacked
our First Amendment right to free speech.” It also uses the theme
music from Larry David’s hit series, “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” David is a big donor to the Democratic Party.

One of the SpeechNow’s major funders is Fred Young, the heir of the Young
Radiator fortune in Racine, Wis. who sold the company for more than
$70 million in 1998. Young donated more than $100,000 last month to
SpeechNow.org for its ad campaign against Feingold.

SpeechNow is headed by David Keating, a longtime opponent of limits on campaign
finance law who has filed numerous suits against the Bipartisan
Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCRA), which Feingold authored along with
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2002.

The D.C. circuit appeals court ruling lifted the prior $5,000 limit on
the amount individuals could donate to a group’s electioneering
efforts, and along with the Citizens’ United decision, paved the way
for Young to give $100,000 to SpeechNow last month, and
corporate-sponsored groups like the American Action Network, to spent
an estimated $1 million in ads against Feingold this cycle.

Keating serves as executive director of the D.C.-based Club for Growth, where Pennsylvania GOP Senate
candidate Pat Toomey previously served as president. The Club for
Growth has spent $200,000 in the Wisconsin Senate race and
millions more in races across the country.

At the time, passage of BCRA in 2002 signaled the end of a long and
arduous two-decades long congressional debate on campaign finance
reform. The sweeping measure aimed to curb the role of soft money in
elections by prohibiting national political parties from raising or
spending any funds not subject to federal limits.

It also prohibited corporations or unions from funding broadcast ads
that name a candidate within 30 days of a primary or caucus or 60 days
of a general election. The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United
vs. the Federal Election Commission early this year overturned those
provisions and led to $300 million or more worth of political ads
whose funders remained secret this cycle, according to estimates by
watchdog organizations.

At the same time, many of the most vocal champions of tightening
campaign finance laws have been muzzled, defeated, or have simply left
Congress. Facing a tough primary himself this year, McCain shied away
from supporting a measure that would require these corporations and
unions to disclose the identity of the funders in the ads.

GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, two longtime champions of
overhauling the nation’s campaign finance rules, refused to support
the disclosure bill under heavy pressure from their Republicans
leaders during such a critical election year.

In the House, Tea Party-supported Christine O’Donnell upset Rep. Mike
Castle (R-Del.) in the Senate primary. Castle is a dedicated proponent
of campaign-finance limits and the sole GOP co-sponsor of this year’s
disclosure bill that passed the House but hit a brick wall in the
Senate.

Castle’s departure follows that of Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.),
who lost his re-election campaign in 2008 and Rep. Martin Meehan
(D-Mass.) who retired in 2007. Shays and Meehan co-sponsored BCRA in
the House and defended it in a series of court challenges.

Editors note: While Keating is involved with SpeechNow and the Club for Growth, the two groups are not affiliated with one another.