Clinton, aides cast shadow over anti-Bush campaigns

If there is a shadow behind the “shadow campaign” of independent Democratic groups opposing the re-election of President Bush this fall, it is former President Bill Clinton.

Denied a meaningful role in the 2000 presidential campaign of his vice president, Al Gore, Mr. Clinton is the common denominator in the major political organizations established to help level the financial playing field against Mr. Bush for this year’s presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Moveon.org, an Internet grass-roots organizing group, began as an effort to defend Mr. Clinton from impeachment in 1998, but since has transformed into perhaps the most aggressive anti-Bush organization, spending millions on TV ads criticizing the president.

The Center for American Progress, a public-research group established to counter the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, is headed by former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta.

And former Clinton adviser Harold Ickes directs the Media Fund, which is raising money for issue ads in battleground states in the presidential contest.

Add Mr. Clinton’s prodigious fund-raising talents to the mix, his keen strategic insights and his ability to inspire large segments of the Democratic faithful, and it becomes clear that the former president is going to be Mr. Kerry’s not-so-silent partner, whether Mr. Kerry wants him or not.

There is no suggestion at all from the Kerry camp that Mr. Clinton is not a welcome addition to the campaign.

“His role in this election hasn’t really been determined, but he is an important national leader on a variety of issues that are important to the American people, such as the economy and jobs,” said Stephanie Cutter, a Kerry spokeswoman. “He’ll play an active role.”

He already has.

After Mr. Kerry came from behind during the presidential primaries to reclaim his role as front-runner over former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont, the Massachusetts senator frequently spoke privately by telephone with Mr. Clinton about strategy.

And since vanquishing all his opponents for the 2004 nomination, Mr. Kerry has received more public support from Mr. Clinton: In his Democratic record-setting $50 million in fund raising for the first quarter of 2004, for example, Mr. Kerry raked in $2 million in one day after an e-mail solicitation by Mr. Clinton.

It is through political organizations, known as 527s, that Mr. Clinton seems to be expanding his already-impressive influence over the Democratic Party.

The rise of the 527, which take its name from a section of the federal tax code, is a byproduct of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reforms, which put limits on the amount of “soft money” contributions from corporations and unions, for example that could be donated to political parties.

No such limits apply to 527s, and a coalition of anti-Bush 527s has raised and spent millions of dollars on political ads, get-out-the-vote campaigns, research and more fund raising, resulting in the creation of a parallel or “shadow” Democratic Party a new political vehicle driven mostly by former Clinton aides and supporters.

“The Clinton circle is busy building things,” longtime political analyst William Greider noted in the Nation, a left-wing magazine. “Whatever the intention, one consequence could be to smother any internal debate about what the party really believes and how to enlarge its sense of purpose.”

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