Cancer Research Website Really Arlen Specter Campaign Fundraiser

{Originally posted at my blog Senate Guru.}

Arlen Specter has been promoting his new website - www.SpecterForTheCure.com - which appears to be an effort to raise money for medical research. Take a look at the website for yourself and get a first impression of your own - and please share in the comments those first impressions as well as your thoughts after reading the below article. It turns out that the donations solicited by the website do not go to medical research - the donations go to Specter's re-election fund:

In two national TV appearances Sunday, Sen. Arlen Specter plugged specterforthecure.com -- a website he said he launched to "put more pressure on Congress" to increase funding for medical research.

What Specter didn't say: The website is owned by his reelection committee, and contributions made there go straight to Specter's 2010 reelection campaign.

No one doubts Specter's commitment to federal funding for medical research. A survivor of two bouts with Hodgkin's disease, the Pennsylvania Republican-turned-Democrat is pushing a bill that would authorize $40 billion a year in baseline funding for the National Institutes of Health.

But critics say Specter's comments Sunday and the layout of specterforthecure.com itself obscure the fact that what looks like a solicitation for medical research is really just a campaign cash come-on.

"While it may meet the technical legal requirements, it's fair to say it's a bit misleading," said Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan campaign law watchdog.

As first noted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's PoliTex blog, specterforthecure.com "appears at first glance to be a fundraising site for a reform movement to help Sen. Arlen Specter fund programs that will seek cures for major diseases."

Visitors to specterforthecure.com are greeted with a banner promising "A Giant Leap in Turning Cancer into Cures." While the homepage of most campaign Web sites feature a photo of the candidate, this one offers a picture of a woman with red tape over her mouth. The caption: "Red tape leaves medical research gasping for breath. It's time we let loose the winds of a cure."

The first several paragraphs on the site talk about the fight against cancer, autism, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and diabetes and discuss Specter's efforts to push through legislation increasing funding for research.

"It's time to unleash the cure," the site says.

There's a reference to "The Specter Record on Medical Research" at the top of the page, but there's not a word about Specter's reelection above the fold; that comes nine paragraphs in, after readers have scrolled down from a bit. And it takes 11 paragraphs before a reader would have any hint that the "Donate Now!" button displayed prominently at the top of the screen is for contributions to Citizens for Arlen Specter, the senator's campaign committee.

Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, said the way the site is designed has "the trappings of a charitable organization" and that it would take a careful read to determine that the Web site is actually campaign-related.

"When you take a quick look, the focus is on finding a cure and it makes it look like a charitable organization," Krumholz said, calling such a site "not at all common" in online fundraising.

The article goes on to include an extremely weak defense from Specter's campaign manager, as well as a recap of Specter's references to the website on Meet the Press and Face the Nation over the weekend, where he encapsulated the references to the site in a context of medical research - not his re-election bid.

As the article mentions, there is one scant reference to Specter's re-election on the front page. Here is paragraph eleven of the twelve-paragraph message:

Become a member, today, of Specter for the Cure. Please contribute to Senator Specter's re-election Committee - Citizens for Arlen Specter. All contributions, of any amount, will be gratefully welcomed. Those who sign up to donate $10 each month for ten months, will receive members only information on the Senator's effort to transform medical research and accelerate cures.

The previous ten paragraphs are all about medical research - finding cures, not funding campaigns. So what do you think? Please share your impressions of the website in the comments.

I would urge Arlen Specter to make public exactly how much money he has raised through this website and contribute that sum from his campaign account to a real medical research organization like the American Cancer Society or the American Association for Cancer Research. I would also urge Arlen Specter to offer a clear disclaimer at the top of all pages of this website that this is a re-election campaign vehicle, to avoid the possibility of any further confusion. To do otherwise would feed into the perception that this website is just a disingenuous and cynical effort by Specter to line his campaign coffers by exploiting people's desire for medical research.

Comments

[taricaziz]

The Kommen fund has turned into a big money deal also.

[jmpurser]

Well first off he should get a native English (or American) speaker to do his web site. "Unleash the cure"? "let loose the winds of a cure"? Probably sounded fine in the original Mandarin or Hindi but something was lost in translation. And since when did medical research NOT result in cures? He might as well institute a fund for making water wet.

Get rid of Specter, whichever party he technically belongs to. The man doesn't belong in the United States Senate and never has.

[MenaC]

I went to the website. Very well done. Also very misleading. Is this legal? If it is, it shouldn't be. He should resign, and donate ALL campaign funds to cancer research.

[M W]

Voter’s naiveté of the election/f­undraising process is equaled only by their apathy. Yes, this is appalling but not uncommon. Sestack’s 2006 San Francisco fundraiser, with suggested $2100pp contribution, focused on his support of repealing DADT. Cancer victims, San Franciscans… focused issue, anywhere, for any lucre.
Political realities of Congress quickly dilute contributors’ issues until the next election cycle. Please find the Senator’s drop down menu for your’s; “we do not respond unless you are a constituent “.
(Cancer Members? San Franciscans?)
Political realities will also decide this issue.
I knew I saved my pink “Members Only “jacket for a reason! For $20, can I get an Arlen patch?
Admiral Sestack was surely a vocal opponent of gay discrimination while serving and would no doubt be one too as a Pennsylvania Senator!

[PierreLeClerke]

So the genius that brought us the magic bullet, continues to show us the lengths he will go to get and stay ahead. He has sold his soul before, it will not surprize me to see him sell out again and again.

[pdxsean]

If this doesn't encourage Joe Sestak to enter the race, I don't know what will.

This really is disgusting. Why exactly were people all excited about this guy making the switch? I suppose he's guaranteed the Democrats a seat in 2010, but I don't think he'll be the one to fill it.

At least his switch has shown us once again that the Repubican Party establishment still doesn't get it, based on their general response.

[CATOfellow]

I can't believe how stupid he thinks us to be. This goes way beyond patronizing to downright odious.
I see that since switching to the democratic party he is already beginning to take on their innate traits.
Though I am an independent (thank God) I really do feel sorry for you democrats now that @ face has joined your party.
Enjoy him.

[stavros]

Just another reason to support any democrat who wants to run against him.

[Freesia2]

I'm not even going to look. Arlen's officially made me tired now.

Arlen needs to go. He's becoming a liability. He's free to run for re-election on his own steam and his own dime which doesn't look too hopeful among PA voters, but between the Republican votes and this bogus appeal for money, the Democrats (I'm Independent) need to cut him loose.

Or better yet, Rahm or Howard Dean or some such need to have a quiet lunch with him explaining that it's in his best interest to just retire while he has dignity.

I don't know if he's just old or just desperate or just ill - but Arlen is more trouble than he's worth and he's going to undermine things for good people who have been waiting too long to correct the sins of the previous administration, and to finally get the real healthcare help they need.

Arlen needs to go home.