Proposed Anti-Obama 527 Stirring Controversy
The leaders of Emily's List, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), have become ensnared -- through their own actions -- in the complexities of federal campaign law.
Emily's List, an organization that backs Democratic women candidates who support abortion rights, and the two labor unions, have each set up independent expenditure (IE) subsidiaries for this election cycle to be able to finance thousands of dollars worth of television ads in support of Clinton.
Under the federal election law, these 'IEs' must completely sever all communication with their parent groups. The staff running the Emily's List IE is barred from talking to Ellen Malcolm and all other leaders of Emily's List. The same rules apply to AFT and AFSCME.
After Clinton came in third in the Iowa caucuses on January 3, staffers working on the three pro-Clinton IE operations not only discussed creation of an anti-Obama 527, the Huffington Post has been reliably told, but even went to the extent of broaching the idea to a number of Democratic operatives to see if any of them would be interested in running such a 527.
IE staffers did not discuss the 527 proposal with officials of Emily's List, AFSCME or AFT. To do so would have put them at risk of criminal prosecution for violating federal election statutes.
Now, after publication of a report earlier today by the Huffington Post on the proposed pro-Clinton, anti-Obama 527, AFSCME president Gerald McEntee and AFT president Edward J. McElroy -- ignoring the distinction between the 'parent' groups they head, and their separately regulated IE 'offspring' -- have asked the Huffington Post to clarify this matter.
McEntee and McElroy may or may not have had any idea as to what their IE sub-organizations -- financed by them, but independent of their control in the arcane world of campaign finance rules -- are up to. If they were to engage in strategy coordination they would have broken the law. No one has come forward to make that allegation, and Huffington Post did not report that anyone had.
Spokespersons for both organizations have made statements that neither McEntee nor McElroy have talked to staff hired to run the two labor IEs.
Ellen Malcolm of Emily List said through spokesperson that no member of the parent organization had conferred with the staff of the Emily's List IE.
The Huffington Post stands by its story, which accurately reported:
"Three groups conducting independent expenditure campaigns in behalf of Clinton - Emily's List, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) - have explored the possibility of trying to put together a multi-million dollar effort privately dubbed the Anybody-But-Obama 527 Committee, but they have run into problems finding any Democratic operative willing to become the director of a campaign against the man who now is the odds-on favorite to become the party's nominee."
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January 8, 2008 10:02 PM