A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Amy Weiss

While many in the media and the political sphere are still discussing Obama's choice not to accept public financing, the Wall Street Journal published a report [1] Thursday about the questionable tactics Republicans are using.

The Republican Governors Association (RGA), a 527 with no donation limits, is soliciting contributions under the pretense that it can even the financial playing field for John McCain's presidential race, since McCain decided to accept public funding and can only spend $84.1 million in the general election.

The Journal quotes RGA executive director Nick Ayers as saying, "We are the equalizer in this campaign."

In 2005, the Federal Election Commission prohibited groups from promising to help a federal candidate with its donations, "but campaign-finance experts disagree about how the law might be applied in this case."

The Democratic National Committee released a statement [2] condemning the actions of the RGA: "Today's report is the latest in a string of campaign improprieties that reveal the double talk behind McCain's rhetoric about reform."

Ayers called Politico.com after an initial report [3] and claimed the RGA was "'not raising money for John McCain' and that their resources will only help the presidential nominee in the same way they'll assist GOP candidates up and down the ballot."

The Journal said the strategy is "that helping Republican gubernatorial candidates in key states with advertising and voter outreach will help put the McCain campaign over the top in those states as well ... Therefore, they are telling donors, unlimited donations they can give for state races will benefit Sen. McCain. That promise, in turn, helps raise more big donations for the group."

DNC spokesman Damien LaVera highlighted McCain's hypocrisy as a co-sponsor of the most significant campaign finance reform law (McCain-Feingold) who dances around the law in his own campaign. "After promising a new standard of openness and transparency," he said, "John McCain has spent so much time blowing loopholes in campaign finance laws that McCain-Feingold is starting to look like a block of Swiss cheese."

Check out our previous report on McCain's FEC controversy   [3]

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

Bookmark/Search this post with:

buzzflash [4] | delicious [5] | digg [6] | yahoo [7] | technorati [8]