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26 Oct 2004, 03:51 PM
I'd vote for T. Boone Pickens over George Soros any day.
Independent Political Groups Outspending Bush, Kerry in October
Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- America Coming Together, Progress for America and other independent political groups are outspending President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry in the final month of the presidential campaign, federal records show.
More than 500 of the groups are spending an unprecedented amount of money trying to influence the Nov. 2 election, said Tony Raymond, cofounder of PoliticalMoneyLine, a Washington-based group that tracks campaign finance. The organizations raised $165.7 million in the last three months of the campaign, according to PoliticalMoneyLine.
Bush and Kerry are limited to spending the $74.6 million in federal funds each received after accepting their parties' nominations. Boone Pickens, whose Dallas-based hedge funds are worth about $1 billion, is among the biggest individual donors to groups opposing Kerry. George Soros, the billionaire chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, leads contributors to anti-Bush groups.
"The campaigns to some extent are out of the hands of the candidates and parties and in the hands of these outside groups,'' said Herbert Alexander, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. "They have to contend with parallel campaigns by outside groups.''
The so-called 527 groups, named for the section of the U.S. tax code under which they operate, raised more than twice as much from Aug. 1 to Oct. 22 than the $64.4 million they collected for all of the 2000 election year.
Unrestricted
The groups are allowed to accept unrestricted contributions from individuals, corporations and unions that are banned for political parties under a 2002 campaign finance law. "Because national party committees can no longer accept soft money, these 527 committees have exploded on the scene,'' Raymond said.
Soros was the single biggest contributor to 527 organizations, giving $23.7 million to Democratic-leaning groups such as America Coming Together and Moveon.org, which are working to defeat Bush. Progressive Corp. Chairman Peter Lewis gave a total of $23 million to 527 organizations.
Big individual givers to Republican-leaning 527 groups included Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, who contributed $8 million; and Pickens, chief executive of BP Capital LLC, who gave $5 million.
Perry and Pickens gave millions of dollars to Progress for America and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, both of which aired advertisements attacking Kerry, a Navy veteran awarded Silver and Bronze stars for valor and three Purple Hearts for wounds in Vietnam.
The 527 groups have raised a total of $363.1 million since Jan. 1, 2003. Their fund-raising is one reason that the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group, estimated this year's elections will cost $3.9 billion, 30 percent more than the $3 billion spent in 2000.
'Force' in Election
"The 527s are a force in this election,'' said Larry Noble, the center's executive director.
Overall, the candidates and the political parties took in more than 527 groups did. Bush raised $272.6 million and Kerry, a four- term Massachusetts senator, took in $242.9 million before the nominating conventions. The Republican National Committee brought in $330 million through Oct. 13 and the Democratic National Committee raised $299 million, Federal Election Commission records show.
America Coming Together, a pro-Kerry group that is spearheading a get-out-the-vote drive in battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, raised $61.8 million of the $360.7 million raised by 527 organizations, more than any other group. Second was another pro- Kerry organization, the Media Fund, which raised $51.7 million for TV, radio and print advertisements. A pro-Bush group, Progress for America, raised $37.9 million.
From Bloomberg News.
Independent Political Groups Outspending Bush, Kerry in October
Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- America Coming Together, Progress for America and other independent political groups are outspending President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry in the final month of the presidential campaign, federal records show.
More than 500 of the groups are spending an unprecedented amount of money trying to influence the Nov. 2 election, said Tony Raymond, cofounder of PoliticalMoneyLine, a Washington-based group that tracks campaign finance. The organizations raised $165.7 million in the last three months of the campaign, according to PoliticalMoneyLine.
Bush and Kerry are limited to spending the $74.6 million in federal funds each received after accepting their parties' nominations. Boone Pickens, whose Dallas-based hedge funds are worth about $1 billion, is among the biggest individual donors to groups opposing Kerry. George Soros, the billionaire chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, leads contributors to anti-Bush groups.
"The campaigns to some extent are out of the hands of the candidates and parties and in the hands of these outside groups,'' said Herbert Alexander, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. "They have to contend with parallel campaigns by outside groups.''
The so-called 527 groups, named for the section of the U.S. tax code under which they operate, raised more than twice as much from Aug. 1 to Oct. 22 than the $64.4 million they collected for all of the 2000 election year.
Unrestricted
The groups are allowed to accept unrestricted contributions from individuals, corporations and unions that are banned for political parties under a 2002 campaign finance law. "Because national party committees can no longer accept soft money, these 527 committees have exploded on the scene,'' Raymond said.
Soros was the single biggest contributor to 527 organizations, giving $23.7 million to Democratic-leaning groups such as America Coming Together and Moveon.org, which are working to defeat Bush. Progressive Corp. Chairman Peter Lewis gave a total of $23 million to 527 organizations.
Big individual givers to Republican-leaning 527 groups included Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, who contributed $8 million; and Pickens, chief executive of BP Capital LLC, who gave $5 million.
Perry and Pickens gave millions of dollars to Progress for America and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, both of which aired advertisements attacking Kerry, a Navy veteran awarded Silver and Bronze stars for valor and three Purple Hearts for wounds in Vietnam.
The 527 groups have raised a total of $363.1 million since Jan. 1, 2003. Their fund-raising is one reason that the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group, estimated this year's elections will cost $3.9 billion, 30 percent more than the $3 billion spent in 2000.
'Force' in Election
"The 527s are a force in this election,'' said Larry Noble, the center's executive director.
Overall, the candidates and the political parties took in more than 527 groups did. Bush raised $272.6 million and Kerry, a four- term Massachusetts senator, took in $242.9 million before the nominating conventions. The Republican National Committee brought in $330 million through Oct. 13 and the Democratic National Committee raised $299 million, Federal Election Commission records show.
America Coming Together, a pro-Kerry group that is spearheading a get-out-the-vote drive in battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, raised $61.8 million of the $360.7 million raised by 527 organizations, more than any other group. Second was another pro- Kerry organization, the Media Fund, which raised $51.7 million for TV, radio and print advertisements. A pro-Bush group, Progress for America, raised $37.9 million.
From Bloomberg News.