ASSOCIATED PRESS
Led by labor unions, interest groups that can urge the public to elect or defeat candidates have poured at least $27 million into the presidential race since Labor Day, with Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry’s backers outspending President Bush’s by a ratio of more than 5-to-1.
The efforts range from pro-Kerry hard-hat stickers handed out by the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Political Action Together Political Committee to pro-Bush radio ads, funded by the National Right to Life political action committee, airing in every battleground state. Among the biggest spenders is the United Auto Workers PAC, which yesterday reported $2.5 million in new spending on pro-Kerry ads.
“There’s a lot more to come in the next week and a half,” said Kent Cooper, co-founder of the nonpartisan Political Money Line campaign-finance tracking service.
PACs are financed with limited contributions from individual donors. Their spending pales in comparison with the tens of millions of dollars that partisan groups collecting unlimited donations from companies, unions and wealthy activists are devoting to ads and get-out-the-vote operations.
But political action committees wield a powerful privilege that the other groups do not: PACs can ask the public to vote for or against a particular candidate, something that “soft-money groups” must stop short of doing. PACs also can spend unlimited sums on presidential and congressional races as long as the groups do so independently of the campaigns that their efforts support.
“In the presidential race, I think you’re dealing with two factors. One, they want an impact on the race,” Mr. Cooper said. “But there’s probably a certain percentage of it where there’s egos involved, and they want to show their members they played a role in the race … maybe even more so than changing voters’ minds.”
Pro-Kerry labor-union PACs have spent about $11 million since Labor Day reaching voters individually as well as en masse. The spending includes television and radio ads, hats, T-shirts and Frisbees, mass mailings, yard signs, telephone calls and door-to-door visits.
Environmental PACs are the next-highest spenders. The groups, including the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters, have devoted about $4 million in PAC money to efforts supporting Mr. Kerry or opposing Mr. Bush.
On Mr. Bush’s side, the National Rifle Association’s PAC has spent more than $3 million opposing Mr. Kerry or supporting Mr. Bush. Pro-life PACs, including the National Right to Life’s, have poured in more than $1 million to back Mr. Bush.
Though the presidential race draws most of PACs’ independent spending, high-profile congressional contests that will determine which party controls the House and Senate also are attracting special-interest money.
In all, PACs have devoted about $7 million to independent efforts in congressional races since Labor Day, shows an Associated Press review of reports they filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Led by physician groups such as the American Medical Association PAC, the committees have spent at least $1.5 million backing Republican Rep. Richard M. Burr, who is running against Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles for the North Carolina Senate.
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