'Soft money' is OK'd for conventions

By Jim Geraghty, States News Service,
Published 7/25/2003

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Election Commission unanimously agreed yesterday to allow host committees for the party nominating conventions to collect unrestricted contributions, clearing up a legal uncertainty that organizers said had stifled fund-raising for the Democratic convention in Boston next year.

The campaign finance law that took effect eight months ago was silent about whether its ban on national parties raising and spending ''soft money'' -- unlimited and largely unregulated donations from corporations, unions, and wealthy individuals -- extended to convention hosts. The six members of the election commission ruled the ban did not.

''We looked at the legislative history, and there was practically nothing about conventions,'' said Ellen Weintraub, the FEC's chairwoman. ''It's hard for me to imagine that members of Congress forgot about political conventions when they wrote their legislation. They all go to them. They know they're out there.''

Weintraub said there was ''little controversy'' among the commissioners about their conclusion that the host committees are not agents of the political parties. She cited the examples of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a Republican, helping to raise money for the 2000 Democratic convention in the city, and Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, a Democrat, doing the same for that year's Republican convention.

''We're thrilled with the fact that the commissioners accepted the recommendations as they stand,'' said Julie Burns, executive director of the Boston host committee. ''In addition to having access to a larger donor pool, it allows us to ask corporations who have a specific interest in a certain region to sponsor those state delegation parties.''

The committee's leaders had said that fund-raising was proceeding slowly because many prospective corporate and trade association donors feared that the Federal Election Commission would ban soft money donations.

The Globe reported this week that the committee had raised $1.7 million, missing its goal by $6.3 million. The committee aims to have commitments for $28.5 million from private sources, $10 million in non-cash gifts, and $11 million from various government sources for the Democratic convention next July.

Officials of the host committee in New York, where the Republican convention will take place in late August 2004, have indicated they are having few problems with fund-raising. According to the committee's figures, they have raised $61 million, $4 million short of the $65 million goal.

Campaign finance watchdogs criticized the commission's ruling as creating a loophole for large donors to use their money to win political access.

''They went with historic precedent,'' said Steve Weissman, the associate director of the Campaign Finance Institute, who raised questions about the convention donations' effect at an election commission hearing in June.

''That historic precedent is based on an era where $2 million is adequate. Now there's $64 million involved,'' said Weissman. ''The guiding assumption is that the chief motivation of donors is to promote the locality, but it's often not local donors. You have national corporations that are trying to get access politically.''

Paul Sanford, director of FEC Watch for the Center for Responsive Politics, said: ''Soft money will find a way through any crack available, and as more cracks get sealed, the appeal of those remaining cracks gets larger. The conventions are now one of the few remaining avenues for those big gunners to make donations to gain access to elected officials.''

Meanwhile, the commission ruled that former Senator Bob Smith, Republican of New Hampshire, cannot legally use contributions to his last senatorial campaign to create a Washington-based nonprofit, the American Patriot Foundation.

Corey Dade of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 7/25/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.