By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICKPublished: December 27, 2007
DES MOINES — In the final days before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, John Edwards has stepped up his criticism of outside organizations that spend money to influence elections, repeatedly disavowing a labor group that is blanketing Iowa with commercials supporting his candidacy. “As for outside groups, unfortunately, you can’t control them,” Mr. Edwards said last weekend as he distanced himself from the actions of the group, known as a 527 for the section of the tax code it falls under. He would prefer the group “not run the ads,” he said.
But the Edwards campaign may have expected the advertisements from the organization, Alliance for a New America, set up by a local of the Service Employees International Union. An Oct. 8 e-mail message circulated among the union leaders who created the group suggests that they were talking with Edwards campaign officials about “what specific kinds of support they would like to see from us” just as they were planning to create an outside group to advertise in early primary states with “a serious 527 legal structure.”
The message, sent by the president of one of the locals involved, was obtained by a rival campaign.
Eric Schultz, a spokesman for the Edwards campaign, said that officials of the service employees union told the campaign only that some of their staff members would no longer be able to communicate with the campaign, a move typically intended to comply with campaign finance laws. “As soon as S.E.I.U. officials informed us that some of their staff were no longer able to communicate with us about the campaign, we immediately cut off all conversation with them, as we legally should,” Mr. Schultz said. “We found out about the existence of this outside group the same way the public did and we stand by our strong position that 527’s should have no role in the political process.”
In the Democratic primary, Mr. Edwards and Senator Barack Obama, a leading rival, have attacked such groups as symptomatic of the corrupting power of moneyed special interests. Just days before the Oct. 8 message, Mr. Edwards announced that as a matter of principle his campaign would abide by the spending limits of federal matching money, to demonstrate his commitment to reducing candidates’ dependence on big money. Legal experts say the restrictions on coordination between campaigns and third-party groups are narrowly defined and difficult to apply.
“The definition of ‘coordination’ has been one of the most difficult legal concepts for the F.E.C. to grapple with for years and years,” said Kenneth Gross, a veteran campaign finance lawyer. “I don’t know if my wife and I met the standard for coordination before we decided to have a child.”
The Oct. 8 e-mail message was sent by David Rolf, president of a Washington State local of the service employees union, to his counterparts at other union locals. It summarizes a meeting of “S.E.I.U. for Edwards,” a group of state-level union leaders rallying around Mr. Edwards. The message discusses plans to swing as many S.E.I.U. locals as possible “into a pro-Edwards position” and to coordinate public endorsements with the Edwards campaign. The organizers plan “to discuss with the Edwards campaign what specific sort of support they would like to see from us,” and list specific meetings scheduled between union leaders and campaign officials like David Bonior, the national campaign manager.
The message says the organizers intend to hire a full-time operative to run their pro-Edwards effort as a legally separate organization. “There was general agreement that the campaign will likely involve fund-raising, field work in early states, media in early states, and require full-time staffing and a serious 527 legal structure for any communication beyond our own membership.” The 527 that the S.E.I.U. locals ultimately formed, Alliance for a New America, is run by Nick Baldick, an operative who helped run Mr. Edwards’s 2004 Democratic primary campaign.
Adam Glickman, a spokesman for the Washington local headed by Mr. Rolf, said Mr. Rolf was traveling and unavailable for comment. Mr. Glickman declined to comment on any conversations with the Edwards campaign, but said that as a matter of policy the S.E.I.U. insulates political operatives from officials who may talk to campaigns. In the closing week before the Iowa caucuses, Mr. Obama has taunted Mr. Edwards for the support he is receiving from the 527 group despite his repeated criticism of such groups. Mr. Obama, though, has faced similar problems over support from such groups. A few months ago, he disavowed an independent group set up by supporters in part to advance his candidacy in California...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/27/us/politics/27donate.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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