A Sticky Question

By SETH GITELL
January 3, 2008

John Edwards, dressed in boots, blue jeans, and a black overcoat, is talking about money, power, and politics, the centerpiece of his populist campaign for president.

A trial lawyer who made millions, Mr. Edwards has been battling to bring his message of middle class grievance to the masses. And the polls, in Iowa at least, suggest he may be meeting with some success. But Mr. Edwards's bold words skirt the details of the situation that prompted a sticky question from a reporter.

A television ad aired in Iowa by a 527 advocacy organization, the Alliance for a New America, which is overseen by Mr. Edwards's former campaign manager, favorably portrayed the former senator's plan for fixing health care and getting corporate lobbyists out of government.

A reporter asked Mr. Edwards what he had to say about his contradiction between not taking money from lobbyists and his willingness to receive the help of special interest groups, particularly ones that are run by a former campaign manager.

Mr. Edwards responded that the 527s should be outlawed. "I think the 527s should be outlawed," Mr. Edwards tells reporters in a residential patch of Nashua, N.H. He speaks specifically about the so-called independent expenditure groups, such as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which have mushroomed since the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 — known informally as the McCain-Feingold Act for its Republican and Democratic senate cosponsors.

"What we ultimately need to do is not just stop the 527s but we need to be publicly financing all of our campaigns … I think it's also important to have a president who's willing to fight the corporate power and corporate greed that's going on in America today. It's doing incredible damage to the middle class."

The campaign of Barack Obama, perhaps sensing that it has identified a hint of hypocrisy on the part of the man who is trying to spoil his quest to capture unique outsider status in Iowa, circulated a memorandum decrying the above referenced arrangement of Mr. Edwards's former campaign manager working with a 527 to run ads on behalf of the former senator in Iowa last week. The story of money and politics has flown under the radar in the 2008 elections with the Alliance for a New America flap being only the latest minor dustup. Although Mr. Edwards's campaign has criticized his opponents for accepting donations from lobbyists, most campaigns engage in the practice of using bundlers, individuals who solicit contributions from other persons. Then they have those monies sent to the campaigns.

Al Hunt, writing for Bloomberg, was one of the few journalists to notice what is happening this year. He predicts that the 2008 campaign "will top $5 billion." Mr. Hunt contends that the enormous amount of money is linked to the disappearance of "Watergate-era reforms — public financing of presidential elections and limits on expenditures."

Missing from Mr. Hunt's assessment was the examination of the last great effort to reform money and American politics, the McCain-Feingold Act which limits the amount of donations that individuals can give to party campaign committees.

But, instead, a large amount of money has been poured into American campaigns despite, or perhaps, because of the McCain-Feingold Act.

Consider this: The Democratic nominee for president in 2004, John Kerry, raised more money during the primary than any other Democrat ever had — roughly $25 million. That is what two of the major Democratic candidates are raising per quarter now. The more than $100 million that the campaigns of Senators Obama and Clinton are likely to bring in will dwarf Mr. Kerry's record-breaking take.

That's an obscene amount. It puts pressure on everyone involved in the business of politics to bring in even more money.

When Mr. Edwards calls for public financing of campaigns, as he's had success doing, it's interesting to note that while his campaign has raked in more money than Mr. Kerry's did in 2004, he's fallen short of his two major opponents. The Web site opensecrets.org puts his total fundraising at $30 million, $50 million less than Mr. Obama's. Even as his call comes out of conviction and consistency with his other positions, perhaps it's rooted in expedience as well.

A number of unanticipated factors have contributed to the exponential growth of money into American political campaigns: The expansion of a wealthy donor class, the ease at giving and raising money online, the improvement on the part of the party structures at identifying potential donors, and the increase of political activism among liberals in the waning days of the Bush administration.

Even the candidate, who according to opensecrets.org has raised the third largest amount of money in the Republican race, has beaten what Mr. Kerry raised by almost $5 million. His name is John McCain.

Mr. Gitell (gitell.com) is a contributing editor of The New York Sun.