McCain warns FEC to act on ‘soft’ cash

Sen. John McCain threatened yesterday to sue the Federal Election Commission if it fails to enforce federal election laws against groups that use “soft money” to influence presidential and congressional races.

“Senator [Russell D.] Feingold is right, use of soft money contributions by ‘527 groups’ whose major purpose is to affect federal elections is not legal,” the Arizona Republican said in a Senate Rules and Administration Committee hearing yesterday.

“If the FEC decides not to enforce the laws or fails to act I will go to the courts,” he said, giving the FEC an April deadline.

A “527 group,” named for the section of the IRS code under which it files taxes, is a private nonprofit political organization with the primary goal of influencing elections at the state and local level.

A large number of 527 groups, most with ties to the Democratic Party, have been created recently. On Tuesday, President Bush’s re-election campaign asked the FEC to investigate whether a $5 million, 17-state TV ad campaign by a 527 group, the Media Fund, is illegal. The ad names Mr. Bush and says “it’s time to take our country back.”

The Media Fund, along with groups such as MoveOn.org, has been financed with huge amounts of “soft money,” unregulated contributions from corporations, unions and businesses.

If the Media Fund or MoveOn.org were found to have as a primary goal affecting the election of House, Senate or presidential candidates, limits would kick in on how much any one individual, union or corporation could give to the group. It also would have to submit to a variety of federal regulations on registrations and quarterly reports on contributions and expenditures.

The Media Fund has been generously subsidized by liberal billionaire George Soros, who has said he wants to defeat Mr. Bush in November and has compared the president to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

According to Mr. McCain and Mr. Feingold, some “527 groups” are being dishonest in denying that their goal is to influence federal elections.

“They should be forced to register with the FEC and comply with federal contribution limits and source prohibitions for ads,” Mr. McCain said yesterday. Similar words came from Mr. Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat.

But Mr. McCain and Mr. Feingold have been hit by Republican opponents for causing the “527 mess.”

“This was my problem with [McCain-Feingold] from the beginning. I always was worried that this [soft] money would ooze out somewhere else. Here it is,” said Senate Rules and Administration Committee Chairman Trent Lott of Mississippi.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, took the matter to the Supreme Court, a case that Mr. McCain referred to several times at the hearing.

Mr. McCain said the mess over how what campaign-finance laws apply to which groups lies squarely on the shoulders of an FEC that he says has been unwilling to implement campaign-finance limits as written and enforce them vigorously.

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