Democrats, still smarting from the 2010 midterm defeats, are determined not to sit on the fundraising sidelines and be caught flat-flooted again. Leading Democratic strategists are building a new arsenal for control of the White House and Congress in 2012, employing the same unlimited, secret donor activities that President Barack Obama and many Democrat have vociferously opposed.
Two new groups, Priorities USA and Priorities USA Action, have launched to counter deep-pocketed GOP groups and are planning to raise $100 million to keep Obama in the White House and elect more Democrats to Congress, according to a report in Politico.
The twin Priorities committees will mimic the example of Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, the two groups that drew widespread criticism from Obama and Democrats during the 2010 cycle for taking full advantage of the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United that allowed unlimited, undisclosed corporate and union donations to outside groups. One will disclose its donors while the other will not.
The Priorities groups have close ties to Obama and leading Democrats. Co-founder Bill Burton is a former deputy White House press secretary; Sean Sweeney was adviser to former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel; Paul Begala is a well-known Democratic pundit and former Clinton political adviser. Geoff Garin, a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, is among the groups’ strategists.
The close involvement of Obama associates — Burton and Sweeney both left their White House jobs on February 16 to start what they called at the time a “consulting group” — signals a different tack from 2010 when Democrats suffered a bruising midterm defeat and lost control of the House to Republicans. The advisers say they want new campaign finance reforms but will not unilaterally disarm or cede fundraising ground to Republicans in such a critical election cycle.
The Priorities committees join two new Democratic super PACs that are already up and running. House Majority PAC, which is focused on helping Democrats regain control of the House, launched two weeks ago and is already up with ads targeting 10 vulnerable Republicans on the House GOP’s plans for privatizing Medicare. Another, the Majority PAC, will focus on ensuring that Democrats keep control of the Senate.
American Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio quickly seized on the launch of the Priorities groups, slamming Democrats for blatant hypocrisy in mirroring the fundraising tactics they were so critical of just six months ago. American Crossroads has said it aims to raise $120 million this cycle, up from $70 million it said it raised in 2010.
“Last year, Obama’s White House and hard left allies launched a coordinated PR and legal assault on non-disclosing conservative groups – and now, just six months later, Obama’s own political operatives are launching the very type of groups they demagogued as “shadowy threats to democracy,” Collegio wrote in an e-mail.
Democrats quickly shot back, arguing that they were left little choice but to build up their own fundraising arsenal or once again be left ill-prepared from the GOP onslaught.
“Politics is a combat sport. You can’t just sit on the sidelines and whine,” House Majority’s Ryan Rudominer told TPM. “We’re making sure we provide the firepower so House Democrats can regain the majority.”
Unlike American Crossroads and the Priorities groups, House Majority will disclose its donations.
Crossroads’ Collegio also called out “good-government groups” challenging them to take a position on the new Democratic committees taking advantage of the post-Citizens United brave new fundraising world or put their own non-partisan tax-exempt status in question.
“This move may cause the biggest ordeal for the so-called ‘good government’ groups who publicly called for IRS and FEC investigations of conservative groups last year,” he said. “To maintain their own ‘nonpartisan’ tax exempt status, will these groups call for investigations of the new non-disclosing liberal efforts?”
Democracy 21’s Fred Wertheimer, a longtime champion of stricter campaign finance rules and more disclosure, said such arguments have no merit because his and other watchdog groups have a long history of calling for investigations of both Republican and Democratic groups that appear to be breaking campaign-finance or tax laws.
“We don’t feel we have to prove our nonpartisan status to Karl Rove,” Wertheimer told TPM. “We will examine the activities of the new groups just as we did the activities of the new groups — Republican and Democratic — in the last election very carefully. We filed complaints against Democratic groups with the FEC in 2004 asking for an investigation into whether they violated the tax laws.”
Disclosure is neither a left or right value, said Public Citizen’s Lisa Gilbert, and no one should be surprised that both parties are choosing to utilize new, limitless fundraising rules.
“The fact that new groups are choosing to play in this manner merely reinforces the palpable need for reform,” she said.
“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, added the Campaign Legal Center’s Meredith McGehee. “Every group spending money on elections — Democrats or Republicans — should be subject to the same standards. …The First Amendment is about freedom to speak, not freedom to hide secret money or to avoid scrutiny or those who might disagree with your speech.”
Correction: The original story incorrectly quoted Wertheimer as saying he filed complaints against Democratic Groups with the IRS last year. The complaints were filed with the FEC against Democratic groups in 2004.
