The era of McCain-Feingold campaign-finance regulation has dawned,
banishing from the Republican Party's three-day annual winter meeting the
receptions and dinners — provided by corporate sponsors — that used to
enliven the annual event.
Republican leaders noticed the difference last week when they met at
the Mayflower Hotel in Washington to strategize and pump themselves up for
the coming elections.
"It was brutal. I mean, we had a rules committee meeting this morning
and they didn't even have Diet Cokes in there," Ohio Republican Chairman
Bob Bennett said with a smile.
"There was always a reception and usually one or two dinners," David
Norcross, a member of the Republican National Committee from New Jersey,
said. "Now you bring your own coffee to the meetings."
Meetings of the Republican National Committee had been financed with
"soft" — federally unregulated — contributions to the national party.
But new restrictions that Congress passed last year put an end to
soft money. So both the Republican and Democratic parties are trimming
expenses while hoarding federally limited "hard" contributions for the most
essential campaign functions.
Meanwhile, a broad coalition of opponents — including the California
Democratic Party, the National Rifle Association and the American Civil
Liberties Union — is asking the Supreme Court to declare much of the
campaign-finance law unconstitutional. But any decision would be too late
to affect the 2004 campaign season.
Mr. Bennett and Mr. Norcross say the new law's more serious impact is
on restricting campaign advertising by outside interest groups in the
crucial days before elections, even while the funding restrictions boost
the importance of outside interest groups in campaigns by reducing the role
national parties play.
"The stark reality of campaign-finance reform for members was at a
meeting like this, where suddenly there is no coffee in any subcommittee
meetings, no receptions, no dinners," said Mr. Norcross, adding, "So now
we're a lean, mean political machine."
But the "stark reality" for the RNC's staff came a month or so ago,
when about a third of them, including some valued senior personnel, lost
their jobs as the committee was forced to trim its budget because of the
McCain-Feingold contribution restrictions.
At the three-day RNC winter meeting that ended Saturday, Republican
National Chairman Marc Racicot — unanimously re-elected for another
two-year term — gave Mr. Norcross the plum assignment. He will serve as the
RNC Arrangements Committee chairman, meaning he will oversee the planning
and execution of the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City.
McCain-Feingold's restrictions on campaign contributions do not apply
to either the Republican or the Democratic national convention.
In what has become something of a requisite for success in Republican
politics in Washington, Mr. Norcross, a former RNC general counsel and
vehement opponent of campaign-finance regulation, has established a close
working relationship with White House chief political strategist Karl Rove.
Mr. Bush signed the McCain-Feingold bill in part because Mr. Rove,
although not exactly a proponent of the measure, saw in its passage
advantages for Mr. Bush's coming re-election battle.
Mr. Bush broke hard-money fund-raising records in his 2000 campaign.
The new rules double federal hard-money contribution limits and thus enable
Mr. Bush to outraise and outspend his Democratic opposition by an even
larger factor.
It also gives him the option of not accepting federal financing in
the general election, thus not being bound by federal finance rules and
limitations.
But the reform's impact on state parties is a different matter. Each
state is now responsible for covering the cost of its own employees, "so we
are no longer permitted to have sponsors," Mr. Bennett explained. "I think
we are going to have to form a national state chairmen's association to
counteract what McCain-Feingold has done to the state parties."
He said that state parties have the job of electing such positions as
governors, county commissioners and township councils.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030204-21258261.htm
