MoveOnPAC Takes On the White House

George Bush strides confidently in the background, looking strong and presidential. As the images taken from his campaign ads referring to the Sept. 11 attacks scroll across the screen, a voiceover intones, "George Bush shamelessly exploited 9/11 in his campaign commercials." Soon after, we hear the voice of Bush's former counter-terrorism chief, Richard Clarke: "Frankly I find it outrageous that a president is running for re-election on the grounds he'd done such great things on terrorism. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11."

This advertisement, which aired on CNN and Fox between Mar. 30 and Apr. 3, is part of a new campaign put together by MoveOnPAC.org. It is part of a coalition of 28 groups that aim to help fill the $100 million-plus fundraising gap between presumped Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and his rival, George Bush.

Since its founding in 1998, MoveOn.org has grown from an upstart cyber-activism group to an organization with a membership two million strong known for its immense grassroots clout. The affiliated MoveOnPAC.org was founded in 2000 specifically to support candidates in key races. During the 2002 elections, MoveOnPAC.org raised about $4 million for various races. Last fall it targeted Arnold Schwarzenegger during the California gubernatorial recall election with edgy ads highlighting his attitudes toward women.

This time around, preventing Bush's reelection is MoveOn.org's main goal -- a goal supported by over 23,000 donors who responded to a Mar. 24 appeal for donations with about $1 million in just three days.

Campaign observers say that the MoveOn Voter Fund, which runs ads exposing President Bush's failed policies in key battleground states, and similar groups like the Media Fund (run by former Clinton adviser Harold Ickes), will play a significant role in the election, but it is still unclear whether they will have an impact on the outcome.

"It's sort of undefined," says Evan Tracey, the COO of TNSMI/Campaign Media Analysis Group, a non-partisan political and media affairs tracking firm. "There's no real precedent for this in America politics. What they can accomplish is keeping the heat up on Bush and driving his negatives up."

And that's exactly what MoveOn.org executive director Eli Pariser hopes the ads will do. "With millions of jobs lost and rising healthcare costs, the only thing this administration has left to run on is its supposed leadership in countering terrorism," he says. "Now we know that there, too, the administration dropped the ball. This ad strikes at the core of Bush's case for re-election."

This unabashed targeting of Bush explains why "527 groups" (named for the section of the tax code they operate under) such as MoveOn Voter Fund and others are raising GOP hackles. Republicans claim that efforts by such groups represent illegal campaign donations.

In a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, the Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee called 527s part of "an unprecedented criminal enterprise designed to impermissibly affect a presidential election." According to the complaint, "this illegal conspiracy of donors and shadowy groups" is spending "soft money" of the type off-limits to political parties under McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform laws. Moreover, the Republicans accuse these groups of illegally coordinating their activities with the Kerry campaign, noting that Kerry's former campaign manager, Jim Jordan, is currently advising some of the media groups.

Some analysts equate the status of the MoveOn Voter Fund to groups such as the NRA, and are skeptical that the FEC will censure them. "The Republicans are just whining now because the progressives are doing what their allies have been doing for years," said Steven Hill, senior analyst with the Center for Voting and Democracy. "The NRA and the Christian Coalition have been doing this for years. It's about time the progressive side caught up."