sEN. John McCain has a problem: Some of his supporters have decided to run ads boosting his campaign down in South Carolina.
Why is that a problem? The group running the ad is endrunning McCain’s beloved campaign-finance restrictions. So the senator can either admit that the “independent groups” he’s spent so much time railing against aren’t really an existential threat to American democracy, or he can relentlessly denounce his own supporters for having the temerity to try to get their candidate elected.
He’s chosen the latter option. But instead of proving how principled he is, he’s merely helped demonstrate how counterproductive his brand of speech regulation truly is.
Called the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, the non-profit that’s causing all the trouble is set up under a section of the tax law that allows it to engage in some activities supporting political candidates, so long as that’s not its main purpose.
To that end, the group has been running an ad in the Palmetto State promoting the Wounded Warriors Act – legislation that would give the troops a pay raise and aim to improve health care for veterans.But the bill has overwhelming support in Congress. The ad’s real intent is pretty clearly exposed when it features a picture of McCain, praising him as “a leader who has served” – along with pictures of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), who both support McCain for president.
The group may be independent
of McCain, but it’s hardly unconnected to him. It’s headed up by Rick Reed, who worked for McCain’s campaign as a media advisor until the campaign’s finances bottomed out this summer.
(Reed also co-produced the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads, slamming Sen. John Kerry during the 2004 election. McCain denounced them as “dishonest and dishonorable” at the time – but still hired Reed earlier this year.)
Reed says that some – “maybe even all” – of the donors to his new group are McCain supporters. “We have the greatest respect for Sen. McCain,” Reed said. But “the issue of campaign-finance reform pales in comparison to the need to identify leaders who not only understand the threat of Islamic radicalism, but have the experience, judgment and resolve to support policies that will defeat it.”
McCain isn’t having any of it.”Anyone who believes they could assist my campaign by exploiting a loophole in campaign-finance laws is doing me and our country a disservice,” he said Monday. “I ask all of my donors and supporters, including
Mr. Reed, to cease anddesist immediately from supporting any independent expenditures that might be construed as benefiting my campaign indirectly.” Is McCain playing both sides of the fence – reaping
the benefit of the ads while also reaping the benefit of looking principled by denouncing them? Well, he’s
hardly above such double talk: In keeping his political operation alive between his 2000 and 2008 presidential runs, he benefited from huge unregulated checks written to his non-profit Reform Institute, which did little
more than write press releases praising the senator and pay his campaign staffers (such as campaign manager Rick Davis).
But the simplest explanation is usually the best: McCain’s found himself stuck in an awkward
situation and is protecting what matters to him most,his reputation for integrity.
The irony is that it’s his system of speech regulation that forces people who want to make their voices heard in the political process to resort to various forms of subterfuge. Rather than pay for these ads, the folks that McCain is yelling at would prefer to donate more to his campaign. But that’s illegal. They can only give him $2,300 apiece for the primary.
McCain’s campaign is very, very cash poor. It ended the third quarter with about $1.7 million cash-on-hand for the primaries – and about the same amount in debt. It’s trying to secure a $3 million loan to
keep going and even considering taking public financing -even though that would place a huge handicap on McCain should he somehow win the nomination. He’d be running his own ads in South Carolina, if he could afford it.
So, he might be asking himself these days: In what possible way would our campaignfinance system be worse if all of these donors could simply write checks directly to their candidate in any amount? Especially,say, if it could all be disclosed instantly on the Internet?
In the meantime, the McCain campaign will continue searching the couch cushions for change. Unfortunately, you can’t pay the ad guys in selfrighteousness.
Ryan Sager is the author of “The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party.
editor@ryansager.com