House wants to impose limits on nonprofit political groups

From The San Fransisco Chronicle:

Washington -- The House narrowly passed a bill Wednesday to set new limits on independent so-called 527 committees, seeking to close a loophole in campaign finance law that allowed major donors to give more than $400 million in soft money to influence the 2004 presidential election.

The bill could prove a blow to the Democratic Party, which has relied on contributions to these groups from wealthy donors such as George Soros and Peter Lewis, who each gave more than $20 million in the last election to pay for get-out-the-vote efforts. But Republicans have also benefited from 527 groups, including the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which ran TV ads attacking Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Campaign finance reform advocates say the current rules allow a small number of wealthy donors to have an inordinate influence on federal elections.

"It's unfair and it's dangerous," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a reform group supporting the bill. "We had just 25 individuals put up $145 million to these 527 groups for the purpose of influencing the last presidential election. Those are the kinds of contributions that can corrupt the political process."

But opponents said the legislation would limit the ability of citizens to pool their resources and engage in voter registration and issue advocacy to affect the outcome of elections.

"What this proposal would do is to curtail the free speech rights of millions of Americans," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose.

Critics of the measure believe it also could spark new efforts to funnel large contributions from donors to other nonprofit groups run by Democratic and Republican operatives, undermining the intent of the bill.

Read more by clicking on the title. We need to get the big money out of politics, not the small-time individuals. Much more on this issue to come.