DNC Studies Independent Unit to Run Kerry Ads

Opening a new front in the campaign advertising war, the Democratic National Committee is developing plans to establish an unprecedented independent unit to run ads supporting Sen. John F. Kerry, party sources say.

Although senior officials say the party has not yet approved the plan, the DNC has hired a political operative to direct what could become a major effort to support Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, with advertising in key states.

The Republican National Committee, which spent large amounts on advertising to support George W. Bush’s campaign in 2000, is leaning against its own advertising effort this year, largely because of restrictions imposed by the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, party officials said. Instead, the RNC intends to focus primarily on grass-roots organizing.

These contrasting decisions could significantly affect the campaign battlefield, especially after the national party conventions this summer. At that point, spending laws will leave Kerry and President Bush with less money for advertising than they have available now.

In 2000, Bush and Democrat Al Gore relied heavily on party advertising to supplement their own efforts: During the general election campaign, each national party spent more on television than did its presidential candidate, according to studies.

If the RNC holds to its decision to concentrate on organizing, that means the Bush campaign could face much tougher decisions than today on where to target its television advertising money during the campaign’s final weeks. For that reason, many operatives in both parties suspect the RNC will eventually join the DNC in pursuing an independent advertising campaign.

The movement toward an independent advertising campaign funded by the national political parties -- a concept some might consider a contradiction in terms -- underscores the difficulty of stopping the flow of money into the presidential race even after the sweeping campaign finance reform law Bush signed in 2002.

New rules under the law, named for Senate sponsors John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), are driving the DNC’s consideration of an independent advertising unit.

Before the McCain-Feingold law, the national parties supported their presidential candidates with ads from two distinct pots of money. The law left unchanged one of those sources: the so-called “coordinated expenditure” that parties could spend in cooperation with the nominee. This year, the parties can allocate about $16.25 million to that purpose.

In recent presidential campaigns, the parties soared beyond that limit by purchasing so-called “issue advertisements.” In these ads, which were ostensibly aimed at promoting the candidates’ views on various issues, the parties could not explicitly urge a vote for their nominee.

But the ads, which proliferated in the 1996 and 2000 races, skirted the edge of that legal line, becoming candidate ads in all but name. By 2000, the presidential candidates had completely integrated the party issue advertising into their strategies, consulting closely on message and targeting.

These ads were especially attractive to the presidential campaigns because they could be financed in part with unlimited donations -- known as soft money -- from wealthy individuals and groups.

In 2000, the RNC spent nearly $45 million on such issue advertising in the largest media markets, about $6 million more than the Bush campaign, according to ad tracking done by the TNSMI/Campaign Media Analysis Group. Likewise, the DNC spent a little more than $35 million in those markets in 2000, about $7 million more than Gore.

But the McCain-Feingold law dramatically changed the rules governing such party advertising, most dramatically by barring the DNC and the RNC from collecting soft money.

Just as importantly, regulations adopted by the Federal Election Commission said that any issue advertising by the parties would count against their limited “coordinated expenditure” ceiling if it were done in collaboration with the nominee and appeared on the air within 120 days of a party’s national convention. That rule has effectively barred the parties from exceeding the coordinated expenditure limit with the issue ads common in the last two presidential campaigns.

But when the Supreme Court reviewed the McCain-Feingold law, it left the parties an alternative: It suggested they could continue to advertise beyond their coordinated expenditure limit if they established an independent unit to design and air the ads.

The catch was that no one in contact with the presidential nominee could participate in developing the advertising. Lawyers for both sides say that means officials at the national party committees could not consult on the content of the ads or where they run; all they could do is write the checks to pay for them.

Adding to the difficulty, since the McCain-Feingold law barred the parties from raising soft money, all of the ads must be funded with money subject to federal contribution limits.

Even with those constraints, the DNC appears on track to establish such an independent advertising unit.

Josh Wachs, the DNC’s chief operating officer, says the party “has made no final decisions about plans or tactics.” But the party recently hired Ellen Moran, a former political aide at the AFL-CIO and Emily’s List, a liberal women’s group, to explore how such an independent campaign would work. And several Democratic operatives said all indications were that the DNC would implement such a plan.

By contrast, the RNC -- for now -- has decided against mounting such an effort, three Republican officials said. Although the RNC is raising much more cash than the DNC, Republican officials say they believe the party could help Bush more by spending the money on grass-roots organizing than an independent unit that cannot coordinate its advertising with the campaign’s strategy.

“The last conversation we had was that it just didn’t make sense, given the incredible restrictions,” said one GOP operative familiar with the plans.

Still, several Republicans and Democrats said they believe the RNC may reconsider.

Jim Dyke, the RNC’s communications director, said the party had not made a final decision on an independent advertising effort, but complained that the new campaign finance law made it more difficult for the national parties than outside groups to run ads for the nominees.

“We are keeping our options open,” he said. Any party advertising would likely become a factor much later in the campaign. Bush and Kerry have opted out of the public financing system for the primary and caucus races. That has allowed each to raise and spend unlimited sums until they formally receive their party’s nomination -- in late July for Kerry and early September for Bush.

Once they accept the nominations, though, each can only spend the $74.7 million in public funds they receive for their campaigns.