Independent groups plow millions into Iowa races

DES MOINES, Iowa — Spurred by a recent Supreme Court decision, independent political groups are using their financial muscle and organizational clout as never before to influence the presidential race, pumping money and troops into early nominating states on behalf of their favored candidates.

Iowans have been bombarded over the past few days with radio spots supporting John Edwards that were paid for by a group affiliated with locals of the Service Employees International Union, which just kicked in $800,000 — on top of $760,000 already spent.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., rolled across Iowa on Monday in a customized black-and-gold bus emblazoned with his picture and the logo of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which has spent several hundred thousand dollars supporting him. And at campaign events in Iowa, backers in AFSCME union shirts turned out Monday to show their support for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. Those appearances come in addition to the union's $770,000 advertising campaign promoting her candidacy.

The groups are prohibited from coordinating their efforts with the campaigns. But the candidates, while often distancing themselves from these efforts, certainly benefit from their activities. Iowa airwaves have been filled with commercials from the groups as they take advantage of the June ruling that lifted a ban on broadcast messages from independent groups within 30 days of a primary or caucus.

In the final two weeks before the caucuses Thursday, independent groups have so far spent at least $5 million in Iowa, with much of the money benefiting the campaigns of Edwards and Clinton. During the last presidential-primary-election cycle, these groups spent nothing on advertising before the caucuses, largely because of the prohibition on such activity in the 30 days before nominating contests. But independent groups such as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and MoveOn.org played a major role in the 2004 general election.

Independent groups can act as a vehicle for negative advertising that campaigns are reluctant to engage in. The Club for Growth, for instance, has spent $700,000 so far, largely on broadcast spots here and in other early-voting states that criticize Republican Mike Huckabee's record on taxes while he was Arkansas governor, an effort that has received several hundred thousands of dollars from an Arkansas political rival of Huckabee.

And the shifting stand on abortion by Mitt Romney, a Republican former governor of Massachusetts, has come under attack in broadcast advertisements here and in New Hampshire from the Republican Majority for Choice, a group of Republican women who support abortion rights.

Supreme Court ruling

The June ruling, in a case involving a Wisconsin anti-abortion group, allows television "issue advertisements" from third-party groups — whether unions, corporations or wealthy individuals — to run right up to Election Day. Under the McCain-Feingold law, which limits the role of money in campaigns, these spots were to cease 30 days before a primary election and 60 days before a general one.

"This more permissive standard," said Kenneth Gross, a veteran campaign-finance lawyer, "means there will be more money, more ads and more saturation."

Unlike national political parties and their candidates, many of the interest groups face no limits on how much they can take in from their contributors and often do not have to disclose their donors' names until after an election. As a result, it is difficult — if not impossible — to determine just how much money they are spending. While they are ostensibly independent of a candidate's campaign, restrictions on coordination between the two are considered so murky that they are often difficult to apply.

In Iowa, the efforts on behalf of or against the candidates involve not only television and radio advertisement but also the nitty-gritty of a campaign: direct-mail brochures, bus tours, pep rallies, telephone calls, educational efforts to explain the caucuses and traditional get-out-the-vote efforts. Independent groups pay for billboards, banners, yard signs, caps, T-shirts and mugs and set up Web sites on behalf of their favorite candidates, efforts that often look as though they were produced by the campaign itself.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is the only leading Democrat who has not attracted support from any of these groups in Iowa. By contrast, Clinton and Edwards are the biggest beneficiaries of independent efforts, largely because of the union support the two have garnered. Meanwhile, both candidates are proponents of stricter campaign-finance rules.

Edwards, in particular, has made tightening such rules a cornerstone of his campaign, putting him in a delicate position as he denounces expenditures coming indirectly from some of his closest supporters, such as locals of the service employees' union.

On the campaign trail, Edwards has called on the groups, known as 527s for the section of the tax code they fall under, to stop running advertisements supporting him. But he has said he will not ask them directly.

"They are part of the law, but let me be clear: I am asking this group and others not to run the ads. I would encourage all the 527s to stay out of the political process," Edwards said over the weekend.

Firefighters aid Dodd

Dodd is getting a spirited boost from the firefighters association, which is traveling with him on a 23-city tour on a bus with an enormous picture of him and the union's logo on its side.

"You can see that bus from two miles away," said Harold Schaitberger, the union's president, who flew in from Washington to lead the effort for the 287,000-member union.

Schaitberger declined to say how much the group planned to spend, other than that it would be "a considerable sum."

The bus tour shows how the lines are blurred: A previous tour cost the union $100,000, while this one, using the same bus, is being paid for by the campaign. The union has also posted "hundreds" of 4-by-8-foot Dodd signs, he said. Federal records show the group also spent more than $10,000 in the past few days on billboards and $102,000 on full-page advertisements in Iowa's 23 largest newspapers last Sunday.

EMILY's List, a political-action committee that supports women running as Democrats, is making a special effort for Clinton. Its campaign is titled "You Go Girl!" and is directed at women who have never attended a caucus.

The group's polling showed that Clinton had a 2-to-1 lead among women who had not previously attended a caucus. As a result, that group, which EMILY's List pared to 60,000 names, became the focus of its efforts with a direct-mail campaign, a phone bank and a "You Go Girl!" Web site. All efforts feature women with Midwestern accents explaining how the caucus works and urging the women to support Clinton.

Maren Hesla, director of the effort, says it has cost $300,000 so far and "we're not done spending."

Clinton is also the beneficiary of a $770,000 television-advertising campaign from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The union estimates it will spend more than $1 million on this television campaign.

The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners has formed a group, Working for Working Americans, that has paid around $500,000 for television spots supporting Edwards.

Edwards is also benefiting from more than $1.5 million from the Alliance for a New America, which has primarily been running a radio campaign in Iowa. While most of the money has come from service-union locals, one big donation of $495,000 was given by a longtime Edwards supporter on Friday.

The name of the donating entity is Oak Spring Farms, which lists its address as Central Park South in New York. The entity is a partnership between Rachel Mellon, the 96-year-old widow of Paul Mellon, and her lawyer, Alexander Forger. Oak Spring Farms had previously given $250,000 to Edwards' One America committee, a 527 committee he set up to fight poverty.