Opinion: Here comes one more 527

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Numerous political activists and consultants are quietly establishing campaign organizations these days with the goal of influencing the 2008 presidential campaign.

It’s tough to tell which will actually develop and have any impact on the race. But The Times’ Dan Morain, who monitors campaign finances, has come upon documents for voters to keep their eye on.

It’s the American Alliance for Energy Independence.

Given the events in Washington this week, a practiced eye might assume that the United States’ energy future is likely to be an issue in the 2008 general election campaign. Congress approved and the president signed one bill increasing gas mileage requirements for all vehicles, and a second measure to grant loan guarantees to power companies that might seek to build new nuclear power plants.

And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency blocked California’s effort to curb greenhouse gases.

While energy has received passing attention in the presidential campaign, two Democratic politicos are convinced that given the stakes, the issue needs a tad more attention. Hence, they took out papers recently to create American Alliance, a 527, so named for the revenue code section that defines rules governing such independent political organizations.

Both organizers come by way of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who had a short-lived presidential candidacy and sought to make energy a key issue before dropping out and endorsing Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Craig Varoga, the Alliance’s president, was former campaign manager for Vilsack’s brief presidential effort. Joe Householder was the governor’s communications director in his 2002 reelection campaign. In 2003 and 2004, Householder became communications director for Clinton, and now works at Public Strategies, a Texas-based consulting firm.

Varoga hopes to attract donations, say $2 million, for ads and activities to generate attention for the concept of energy independence and to urge presidential candidates to get specific on the topic, a perennial issue for the past several presidential contests.

“If we wake up in November 2008,’ says Varoga, ‘and there was no serious discussion about energy independence, we’ll be worse off.”

--Andrew Malcolm