Dem "Shadow Groups" Face Scrutiny (challenging fundraising)

Democratic 'Shadow' Groups Face Scrutiny
GOP, Watchdogs to Challenge Fundraising


Leading campaign finance watchdog organizations as well as Republican activists intend to challenge the new "shadow" Democratic Party -- a network of independent groups gearing up to spend as much as $300 million on voter mobilization and pro-Democratic TV ads.

The organizations -- the Center for Responsive Politics, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 -- contend that the pro-Democratic groups are violating prohibitions on the use of corporate and labor money for partisan voter registration and mobilization drives....


Harold Ickes, who runs the pro-Democratic Media Fund, contended the Republican and watchdog critics are "one, trying to tie us up; two, divert our attention; three, force us to spend money on legal fees rather than electoral activities; and four, to try to chill our contributors."
Republican activists have created a group, Americans for a Better Country (ABC), in part for the purpose of getting the Federal Election Commission to rule on the legality of the objectives and practices of the pro-Democratic groups.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62465-2003Dec13.html

whatever challenges conservatives may mount, they will fail. If liberals organize groups to boost turnout (with the goal in mind of keeping liberal district turnout higher than conservative district turnout), the conservatives will have no valid claim in court. They're more than free to seek to boost turnout in their strongholds as they wish.

Of course, liberals enjoy a certain advantage with this situation. For one, we have more room until we hit our turnout ceiling. The GOP turns-out its voters every election cycle, while we don't. We have more to gain from a good GOTV operation.
And secondly, our stronghold areas are more concentrated with respect to population. Our volunteers can walk from door-to-door with literature, while GOP workers in rural areas would have to often drive from door-to-door. While we can advertise in one newspaper and reach thousands (often millions) of potential voters, the GOP needs to spread-out its message across more, and more sparsely-populated areas.

It finally sounds like we'll be fighting with a smart GOTV operation in 2004. If turnout in liberal areas is a mere 5% higher than turnout in conservative areas, we'll win much much more easily. Thank you, George Soros!