Will Obama keep his promise on public funding?

A recent New York Times article discussed an issue that we recently talked about in class, that being whether Obama will keep his word on only using public funding for the general election campaign if he gets the Democratic nomination. According to the article, Obama's recent statements on the issue do not seem too comforting. With his tremendous private fundraising capabilities, Obama is probably starting to regret his oath from early last year as he seems to be less clear as to what he will do. This will be a test of integrity for Obama, but as mentioned in class, either way it's not going to severely damage his campaign because the average American does not know about campaign finance.

Amigos de Obama

We watched an interesting spanish pro-Obama ad in Spanish class today (its a song about Obama). It's from a group called Amigos de Obama and because the ad actually says "vote for obama" I wanted to know where the money came from. The website does not identify what kind of group the organization is specifically. The website does offer some clues: the site is "Supported by Nueva Vista Media, Inc" and founded by Miguel Orozco (after looking at the Nueva Vista site I discovered he is the president of Nueva Vista and his bio shows that he has previous political ties). Nueva Vista defines itself as "a creative digital media company using all mediums to connect with Latinos." Clearly Amigos de Obama, Orozco, and Nueva Vista are all related, but where does the money for Amigos de Obama (which is also holding grassroots rallies) come from? Nueva Vista? Orozco himself? While the information may be out there somewhere (I looked for over half an hour), this example shows it is not easy to figure out where a lot of the campaign money actually comes from.

Spotlight on the Christian Coalition

How did the Christian Coalition go to far? This article, "Christian Coalition Shrinks as Debt Grows," highlights several of the problems the CC faced that caused them to crumble.

Ex. Controversial voter guides, pressure from liberal watchdog orgs, tax exempt status in jeopardy, investigation from the IRS and FEC for violations.

IRS Investigating Obama's United Church Of Christ

The IRS has recently begun investigating the United Church of Christ congregation in Chicago which Barack Obama attends, over a speech Sen. Barack Obama gave at its national meeting last year after he became a candidate for president, the denomination said Tuesday.


The article states:

The IRS has stepped up its monitoring of the political activity of nonprofit groups during the 2008 election. It is more common for individual congregations to be targeted, not entire denominations, but very large ministries have been investigated in the past.

The inquiries can take years. Punishments can range from a financial penalty to loss of tax-exempt status -- an outcome that church attorneys call the "death penalty" for nonprofits.

This investigation goes hand in hand with our recent discussions about the different types of organizations and the limits of their political actions and spending.

Campaign Finance Reform in Maine

Here is a website that does a good job of summarizing what Maine passed, I have included some key provisions:

"The law was passed by Maine voters in a referendum in 1996 and came into effect in 2000. Candidates who demonstrate citizen support by collecting a set number of $5 qualifying contributions from voters within their districts (50 contributions for a State House race, 150 for the state Senate, and 2,500 for a gubernatorial race) are eligible for fixed and equal campaign funding from the Clean Election Fund. To receive their money, candidates must agree to forgo all private contributions (including self-financing), and limit their spending to the amount from the fund.

Participating Clean Money candidates are also given an additional one-for-one match if they are outspent by non-complying opponents or are the target of independent expenditures (such as ads produced by a group not associated with the opposing candidate). Candidates who reject the option of Clean Money or who fail to qualify are still free to collect private money under the existing system."

Elections, Religious Groups, and Reform

The SEIU (Service Employees International Union) has swung behind Obama. Here is an independent expenditure ad by its PAC:



Same ad in Spanish:




PowerPAC is not a PAC but a 501(c)(4). It has run pro-Obama ads with a religious theme:



Some background on the religion, politics, and the IRS.

Kennedy speech to Greater Houston Ministerial Association:



Obama speech to the United Church of Christ:




In the current decade, as the reading explains, we have seen a clash of Catholic Answers Action and the Catholic Action Network for Social Justice.

See here and here (go to p. 37) for data on religion and electoral preference.

NRA Endorsement Bad Sign for GOP in Ohio

Do endorsements from interest groups matter? How much? I'm not sure. But, as a card-carrying member of the NRA, I had to post this one.

From the Politico:

The National Rifle Association endorsed Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio) for re-election today, giving the freshman congressman key credibility among gun owners as he runs for re-election in a largely rural and solidly Republican district.

"During just my first term in Congress, the NRA and I have already forged a strong working relationship as we both seek to protect the gun owners and sportsmen in the 18th Congressional District,” said Space in a statement.

“We are both committed to preserving the constitutional rights of gun owners and sportsmen everywhere as we work to end the continual whittling away of the Second Amendment by those opposed to gun ownership."

Republicans have had trouble recruiting credible candidates to challenge Space, despite the district’s Republican tilt. The four Republican candidates who have filed for the state’s March 4 primary have hardly raised any money in preparation for the campaign.

Space won election to Congress, fueled by voters’ disgust with the indictment of his predecessor, GOP Rep. Bob Ney. But Republicans had hoped that the district would return to its Republican roots, given the fact President Bush won 57 percent of the vote in 2004.

The NRA’s endorsement suggests that prospect for Republicans is increasingly unlikely, and that Space’s long-term prospects of holding the seat may be better than even he once expected.

I don't know how much the endorsement is going to help Space, but at the very least, it's a bad omen for Republicans living in Ohio's fightin' 18th: if the NRA is endorsing the Democrat in the race, it's doubleplusungood for the Grand Old Party.