California PAC and 527 gears up for Obama

[UALRBSofL]

Obama in Nevada moved away from his criticisms of outside money flowing into the political process, and now a California group appears to be gearing up to supplement his ground game there, according to an email forwarded by a reader.

Vote Hope, a group with a PAC and 527, founded by Steve Phillips, emailed supporters today with a help-wanted, announcing that they're "fired up to win California for Obama!" The email suggests that the organizing will be done through another group of which Phillips, son-in-law of the Democratic mega-donors Herb and Marion Sandler, is president, PowerPAC.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0108/California_...

[UALRBSofL]

1. K/R

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. Did that CA 527 actually run ads? n/t

[Tom Rinaldo]

3. "Obama's supporters get around money limit"

Obama's supporters get around money limit
Lance Williams, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

California supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama are using a controversial political committee to rake in donations in excess of what is allowed under tough federal campaign finance laws.

Exploiting a legal loophole, the Obama supporters have set up a so-called 527 group - an unregulated committee of the type deployed by Republican Swift Boat Veterans in the 2004 presidential campaign - as a centerpiece of political fundraising for the California Democratic primary in February.

So far, wealthy donors have written checks in the amounts of $90,000 and $50,000 to "Vote Hope 2008," the Obama supporters' 527 group, federal records show. The group is led by San Francisco lawyer Steve Phillips, son-in-law of wealthy financier and Democratic political donor Herbert Sandler.

Named for the section of the U.S. tax code that regulates these groups - and independent of the input or control of political candidates - 527 groups aren't subject to the Federal Election Commission's legal limit on contributions of $2,300 per donor per election.

The same Obama supporters have also set up a political action committee - the type of fund-raising device used by special-interest groups to funnel donations to multiple candidates - and used it to raise money for Obama's California campaign, records show. The political action committee also is called "Vote Hope 2008."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/08/MN9JREV751.DTL&type=printable

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. "PAC tries new tactic to boost Obama run"

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | July 21, 2007
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Boston.com

WASHINGTON -- The website has the look and feel of Barack Obama's official page, and the headline says it all: "Bank it for Barack." The site asks for contributions of up to $5,000 per person to help the Illinois Democrat win the crucial state of California.

The group sponsoring the Web page is not Obama's campaign, but an independent political action committee called Vote Hope 2008, which says that its goal is to help Obama become president and that it will spend $2 million to get out the vote for him.

Federal law prohibits political action committees, or PACs, from spending more than $5,000 in support of a candidate."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/07/21/pac_tries_new_tactic_to_boost_obama_run/

Here is at least one version of Vote Hope's web site:
http://www.votehope2008.org/

[XemaSab]

5. XOMG! They're encouraging black people and other people of color to go vote in the CA primary!

For Obama even!

And they've got Stevie Wonder!

Won't someone think of the children? :cry:

[NJSecularist]

6. I didn't realize Obama's 527 group was attempting to air aids attacking another candidate

:sarcasm: :sarcasm:

Hillary taking a page out of Karl Rove's playbook.

[Tom Rinaldo]

8. Speaking for myself, I made no effort to spin how the pro Obama 527 operated

I was curious about it after seeing the OP so I researched it a little and posted what I was finding.

I'll tell you why it matters to me though. I do not like 527's that spring up sudenly to help a candidate win an election and then melt away when the election season ends. For that reason I do not like the talked about pro-Hillary 527 either. I feel differently about 527's that represent ongoing membership organizations like Unions and advocacy groups like MoveOn.org which plan to stick around and which are accountable to heat from their members if they screw up in how they operate during an election. I feel a little better about temporary 527's that are open about who is supporting them compared to those that hide behind a veil until the finacial reporting data comes due, usually long after it is of any use to anyone to know.

If all candidates benefit from 527's during a campaign however I am less likely to come down on one or another for doing so while their competition "profits" from them when convenient to them.

You didn't use the word "swiftboating" in your post that I am replying to, but others have in regards to this new proposed pro-Clinton 527. I strongly differ in that characterization, at least in the abstract until I see what ads are actually produced by this 527 against Obama. I do not equate negative advertising with swiftboating; swiftboating is a specific inherently dishonest subset of the larger category of negative advertising. Every political campaign "goes negative" some of the time. It is often called contrasting positions, or thowing light on the weaknesses of an opponent. It is often called raising issues for the public to consider.

Obama was quick to throw NAFTA against Clinton in Ohio for example, even though she never cast a vote on it herself. That was "an attack" - we can argue about whether it was a fair attack or not, but it was a negative attack on Hillary regardless. None of us have seen the supposedly negative ads this new 527 are rumored to be planning - but I won't call it below the belt unless it is literally shown to be below the belt.

[scheming daemons]

7. Obama's 527s: dedicated to bringing in new voters. Hillary's 527s: dedicated to smear campaigns

If you can't see the difference, you are a lost cause.


Seriously... you've lost your ability to think critically. You're brain-damaged.