McSame's Campaign Finance Dodge Using Charity Front Group

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I was looking up some information on what boards and groups that McCain has served on. With him now playing the "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" game on Obama, I thought it was fair to see whom he has associated with (Other than crazy preachers who hate Catholics). After he lost the 2000 nomination, he set up a 501(c) charity called the Reform Institute for the covert purpose of helping him in a future presidential campaign. This is the group that received large donations from George Soros in support of McCain's campaign finance work.

Clearly McSame is dripping with hypocrisy on the issue of campaign finance reform. He's still playing the same money for influence game he did with Charles Keating. He's used this "charity" to employ at least four of his campaign staff and promote him for this campaign. This same staff consists of some major lobbyists with ties to large corporate special interests.

The Boston Globe reported on McSame's campaign in waiting back in 2006.

The Reform Institute, founded in 2001 by Senator John McCain, Arizona Republican, is another example of a charity that can benefit a politician, Cohen said. The institute works on many issues espoused by McCain and employs a former staff member.

While the Reform Institute has applauded congressional restrictions on donations to advocacy groups, the organization has declined to take a position on whether greater restrictions should be placed on charities. An institute spokeswoman said McCain cut his ties to the group last year.

But did he cut his ties to the group? An article in the May edition of Harper's has some interesting details.

The Reform Institute gets much of its money from major donors to McCain’s political campaigns. There has also been a steady revolving door between the Institute and the senator’s campaign staff, through which have passed, notably, lobbyist Rick Davis, who now runs McCain’s campaign and who over the years received $395,000 in salary and consulting fees from the Reform Institute, as well as Donald Murphy, a Senior Advisor to the Institute and a long-time political ally of McCain’s who serves as the senator’s Maryland campaign coordinator. Murphy also heads a lobbying and political consulting firm with clients including Diebold and the American Association of Nude Recreation.

McSame is not only using his charity as a campaign in waiting but he's also used it in ties to Diebold and Nudists. I have to say regarding McCain and nudity, "EEEWWWW!"...shudder

Source Watch has the best summary of McSame's campaign in waiting.

The Institute, which has been identified as both an astroturf organization and phony think tank, "primarily seems to be the 2008 McCain-for-President campaign-in-waiting." <1><2> In August 2005, the Institute was "housed in the same Old Towne office building as McCain's re-election committee (Friends of John McCain)," his Straight Talk America PAC, and "his adviser's lobbying firm" Davis, Manafort & Freedman, Inc. <3>

"The chairman of the board of the Reform Institute is ... John McCain," Bradley A. Smith wrote. "If you go to look at the press releases at reforminstitute.org, you will see that virtually every release mentions Sen. McCain in the first sentence. Not paragraph, sentence. Who runs the Reform Institute? Well, the president is Richard Davis, who is paid over $110,000 a year. Who is Richard Davis? He was John McCain’s 2000 campaign manager. The counsel to the Reform Institute is Trevor Potter, whose law firm is paid more than $50,000 a year for the work. Who is Trevor Potter? Why, he was legal counsel to McCain 2000! The finance director of the Reform Institute is a woman named Carla Eudy. She was finance director for McCain 2000. The communications director is Crystal Benton; she was McCain’s press secretary.

"Recently the Reform Institute, which bills itself as 'a thoughtful, moderate voice for reform in the campaign finance and election administration debates,' launched what it calls the Natural Resources Stewardship Project. And what does natural resources stewardship have to do with 'campaign finance and election administration'? As near as I can tell, its only connection to campaign finance and election administration is, as the institute’s site tells us, that 'Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman have introduced the Climate Stewardship Act' in Congress. And, of course, John McCain is planning to run for president again, and his signature issue, other than campaign finance regulation, is global warming. To run the Natural Resources Stewardship Project, the institute hired John Raidt, who, you guessed it, served 15 years working on 'environmental initiatives' for Sen. McCain," Smith wrote.

"And how is the Reform Institute funded? With contributions, in six figures or more, from individuals and corporations, including the cable company Cablevision. Cable companies are constantly before the Senate Commerce Committee, which Sen. McCain chaired at the time of Cablevision’s contribution. In fact, Cablevision gave $200,000 to the Reform Institute around the same time its officials were testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee. Appearance of corruption, anyone?", Smith asked.

While the media lets McSame put up a good front, the reality is that he's the same corrupt politician who was in bed with Charles Keating. He's just branched out to cover other industries like cable. It's obvious that the only thing this group intended to reform was McSame's image and campaign chest.

[seasat]

1. A bump for the Saturday crowd since I posted this last night.

McSame has several hypocritical actions on campaign finance. He opted into the public financing system when his primary campaign was down. He used the promise of public financing to secure a loan and get on several primary ballots. He then proceeded to violate the public finance laws by going over spending limits and is now considering pulling out of it all together for the general election. The FEC is not able to do a thing about it because the Repugs are refusing to nominate a commissioner to the committee. That means that the FEC doesn't have a quorum to take action against McSame.