This morning we awake to news of yet another reason political parties have been moving primaries earlier. They may be able to re-solicit funds from donors who have already given the max by taking advantage of language in federal election laws that hinges on the phrase “calendar year”.
Under federal law, candidates can raise up to $2,300 from donors for primary elections and another $2,300 for the general election. Because the presidential nominating process requires numerous state primaries and caucuses, federal law states: “All elections held in any calendar year for the office of the president of the United States (except for the general election for such office) shall be considered to be one election.”
In short, a strict reading of the law means the contribution limits apply only to primaries and caucuses held in 2008. If a state moves its primary or caucus to 2007, it could mean a whole new cycle.
Did Congress envision this when it wrote the law in 1974. Not likely.
Perhaps Congress didn’t envision it but you can be sure that someone did otherwise we wouldn’t be hearing about it right now. The whole idea that politicians can further lower the bar to entry by playing games with primary dates is an affront to the whole electoral system.
Read the following passage and guess which representative of which party is saying that the FEC may not have final say on the issue.
“The obvious intent of the Congress in passing that provision was to have one limit to cover all of the primary and caucus elections,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a group that advocates limits on money in politics. “You’re going to have a situation where the literal language certainly appears to say one thing, and the intent of Congress appears to be something else.”
The final decision could rest with the Federal Election Commission. If Iowa moves its caucuses to December, campaign lawyers are likely to file prompt requests for commission advisory opinions.
“In a situation like that, where time would be important, we have tried to expedite that process if it’s possible,” FEC spokesman Robert Biersack said. “I’m sure we would move as quickly as we could.”
Several campaign lawyers predicted the commission would be reluctant to open a new money stream under a quirk in the law. Permitting candidates to raise more money would also raise a number of tangential issues:
- Would candidates seeking matching public money be entitled to more federal funds?
- What if only one party decided to hold a contest in December? Would the money raised be required to be spent in the December contest only?
Larry Noble, former FEC general counsel, said commissioners could act even without a request for advice from the campaigns.
“If there is confusion about the law or a possible interpretation out there that runs contrary to the intent of the statute, they could make it clear that they read the statute as applying one contribution limit to all the primaries,” Noble said.
Creating a new fundraising cycle, Noble said, is not “a necessary or even a good reading of the statute.”
Birkenstock said the solution may not rest simply with the FEC.
That is Joseph Birkenstock, former chief counsel for the Democratic National Committee. No surprise there. When are people going to wake up and realize that these people are only in it for themselves?
Update: I’ve been mulling this over and I find it interesting that Democrats play rich man poor man when it comes to defending creating a class of victims yet some clearly have no problem giving the upper hand to rich donors at the expense of poor people who can not compete fairly when contribution limits are doubled. It will interesting to see where this goes. Who will bite first?
primaries, contribution limits, FEC
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