Posted on 10-8-2003
Liberals
For The Defeat Of President
By Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post , 8 August 2003
Labor, environmental and women's organizations, with strong
backing from international financier George Soros, have joined
forces behind a new political group that plans to spend an unprecedented
$75 million to mobilize voters to defeat President Bush in 2004.
The organization, Americans Coming Together (ACT), will conduct
"a massive get-out-the-vote operation that we think will
defeat George W. Bush in 2004," said Ellen Malcolm, the
president of EMILY's List, who will become ACT's president.
ACT already has commitments for more than $30 million, Malcolm
and others said, including $10 million from Soros, $12 million
from six other philanthropists, and about $8 million from unions,
including the Service Employees International Union.
The formation of ACT reflects growing fears in liberal and Democratic
circles that with Republicans likely to retain control of Congress,
a second Bush term could mean passage of legislation, adoption
of regulations and the appointment of judges that together could
devastate left-supported policies and institutions. Other
groups joining the fight against Bush include the American Majority
Institute, which was put together by John Podesta, a former
top aide to President Bill Clinton. The institute will function
as a liberal counter to conservative think tanks such as the
Heritage Foundation. A network of liberal groups has formed
America Votes to coordinate the political activities of civil
rights, environmental and abortion rights groups among others,
and former Clinton aide Harold Ickes is trying to set up a pro-Democratic
group to finance 2004 campaign television ads.
Another factor behind the surge of political activity is the
fear that the ban on "soft money" will leave the Democratic
National Committee without adequate funds to pay for state and
federal "coordinated campaign" activities, which are
voter mobilization efforts eight weeks before the election.
In the past, the DNC paid for much of the costs with large "soft
money" contributions from unions, corporations and rich
people. Republicans sent a warning shot across ACT's bow.
"We are going to be watching very closely to make sure
they adhere to their claim that they will not be coordinating
with the Democratic Party," said Republican National Committee
spokeswoman Christine Iverson. Such coordination would violate
campaign finance laws. Iverson contended that ACT's financing
indicates that "the Democrats are addicted to special-interest
soft money and this allows them to feed that addiction by skirting
the spirit of the new campaign finance law."
The shifting focus of Soros, who is worth $5 billion and is
chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, from the international
sphere to the domestic political arena is considered significant.
In a statement describing his reasons for giving $10 million,
Soros said, "I believe deeply in the values of an open
society. For the past 15 years I have focused my energies on
fighting for these values abroad. Now I am doing it in the United
States. The fate of the world depends on the United States and
President Bush is leading us in the wrong direction."
Steve Rosenthal, whose mobilization of union members from 1996
through 2002 has been widely praised, will be ACT's chief executive
officer. He said that ACT will hire hundreds of organizers,
state political directors and others as the 2004 election approaches.
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