This really grinds my gears

[WindChill]

Sorry for the Family Guy reference but this kind of thing irritates me no end. In today's Houston Chronicle, in an article about Ronnie Earle issuing a subpoena to one of the founders of MoveOn.org, this little paragraph appeared (bold is mine):

"The subpoena by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is for Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org. The Democratic organization was founded for the 2004 elections as a means of getting around new federal campaign finance laws that were designed to limit the influence of money on national elections."

What "campaign finance laws" was MoveOn.org founded to "get around?" Seems to me that MoveOn and others like it were founded in compliance with federal campaign finance laws, not to get around them.

Full article

[babylonsister]

1. I guess we need to find out who the author, Radcliffe, is. I

hadn't seen that. Thanks, and welcome to DU from a neighbor near Friendswood.

[WindChill]

2. Thanks

Been here a long time, but usually just read. League City here, just across 45.

[Jane Austin]

4. R.G. Radcliffe?

He's a pretty good reporter.

[fleabert]

3. 'move on' as in - move on past the Clenis...

dumbass. founded before 2004

MoveOn.org Civic Action was started by Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Although neither had experience in politics, they shared deep frustration with the partisan warfare in Washington D.C. and the ridiculous waste of our nation's focus at the time of the impeachment mess. On September 18th 1998, they launched an online petition to "Censure President Clinton and Move On to Pressing Issues Facing the Nation." Within days they had hundreds of thousands of individuals signed up, and began looking for ways these voices could be heard.

In 1998, MoveOn PAC was formed as a political action committee so that like-minded, concerned citizens could influence the outcome of congressional elections, and in turn, the balance of power in Washington, D.C. Now known as MoveOn.org Political Action, this organization provides individuals, who normally have little political power, an opportunity to aggregate their contributions with others to gain a greater voice in the political process, and brings people together to take important stands on the most important issues facing our country.

The MoveOn Peace campaign was founded independently by Eli Pariser, a Maine native and recent graduate of Simon's Rock College of Bard. In the days following September 11th, 2001, he launched an online petition calling for a restrained and multi-lateral response to the attacks, which was quickly signed by more than half a million people. Eli joined forces with MoveOn soon afterward, and is now MoveOn.org Political Action’s Executive Director.

MoveOn.org Political Action, one of the largest Political Action Committees in the country, brings real Americans into politics to fight for a more progressive America and elect progressive candidates. It conducts major campaigns, from its work to protect the Supreme Court from a hard-right justice to its campaign to defeat the right wing and elect moderates and progressives in 2006. But in contrast to most PACs, which funnel industry contributions to candidates in exchange for access, MoveOn.org Political Action brings hundreds of thousands of small donors together to elect candidates who will represent the American people. With one secure online credit card transaction, you can immediately make contributions to several campaigns. All contributions go to the individual campaigns in the amounts you specify. MoveOn.org Political Action takes care of all the required FEC paperwork by transmitting necessary contributor information to each campaign.

Because it’s a federal PAC, MoveOn.org Political Action can’t accept donations greater than $5,000. And in fact, MoveOn.org Political Action is mostly funded by people who give less than $100 – folks who don’t have a lot of money but want to see a change. Through 2004, MoveOn.org Political Action raised approximately $11 million dollars for 81 candidates from over 300,000 donors.

http://moveon.org/about.html

[AlGore-08.com]

5. He's wrong about the founding, but he means MoveOn is a 527 group

The "to get around campaign finance law" is a leading way of saying that 527s are not regulated by the Federal Election Commission. So there can be 527s which are legitimate political organizations and 527s which are set up only to funnel unlimited soft money into an election.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/527_group

527 group

A 527 group, named after a section of the United States tax code, is a tax-exempt organization that is created primarily to influence the nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates for public office. Although candidate committees and political action committees are also created under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, the term is generally used to refer to political organizations which are not regulated by the Federal Election Commission or a state elections commission and not subject to the same contribution limits as PACs.

A 527 group is permitted to be exempt from federal expenditures. Anyhow, these unregulated contributions are frequently abused. Because 527 organizations are not regulated by the Federal Elections Commission, they may not make expenditures to directly advocate the election or defeat of any candidate for federal elective office.

Many 527s are run by special interest groups and used to raise unlimited amounts of money to spend on issue advocacy and voter mobilization. The line between issue advocacy and candidate advocacy is the source of heated debate and litigation.

Examples of 527s include Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Texans for Truth, The Media Fund, America Coming Together, the Moveon.org Voter Fund, the Progress for America Voter Fund, and the November Fund.

(more... )

From Open Secrets - - top 50 527s from the 2004 cycle

http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtes.asp?level=C&cycle=2004

[WindChill]

6. Understood

My problem with this article is that DeLay has whined that the indictments are purely political, has attacked the prosecutor for being a Democrat, and asked that the judge be replaced because he contributed $200 to MoveOn.org last year. With DeLay's attacks of partisanship and this article's characterization of MoveOn.org as "getting around" campaign finance law, the implication is that MoveOn.org is operating illegaly and the judge is suspect for supporting a partisan organization that exists to attack Republicans and evade federal law.

[radwriter0555]

7. So delay's defense is about attacking the JUDGE and not defending his

client?

That must mean his client's legs are pretty wobbly.

Especially since Moveon.Org was started long before 2004. It was started in 2000.