A valid point has been made that referencing what I perceive as the
"exquisite divisiveness of this president" is not all that consistent with
"taking off my 'shameless partisan' hat."

Please replace "this president" with "today's politics" and go on about your
afternoons.


-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Birkenstock [mailto:jbirkenstock@smithkaufman.com] 
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 1:13 PM
To: 'Thomas Mann'; 'TP@Capdale.com'; 'marty.lederman@comcast.net';
'rkelner@cov.com'; 'rick.hasen@lls.edu'; 'election-law@majordomo.lls.edu';
'RBauer@perkinscoie.com'; 'daveanstaett@yahoo.com'
Subject: RE: news of the day 5/20/04


Well, if nothing else we certainly agree on our points of disagreement:

"Independent "issue ad " campaigns were a prominent feature of the 1996 and
2000 campaigns."

"Prominent" in the abstract - OK, sure.  "Prominent" vis-a-vis the
much-excoriated issue ad campaigns run by the national party committees - in
my opinion, no.

"National parties raised $433 million in the first 15 months of this
election cycle."

Conflated, yes, the six national party committees have raised quite a bit of
money so far in this cycle.  (And yes, frankly, more than I expected they
would.)  Segregated by party, the GOP committees have very significantly
outraised their Democratic counterparts.  The fundraising by the new 527s
makes up part of the difference, confirming your point that in the broadest
terms the "blue" and "red" teams will apparently reach the same rough
financial parity in this cycle as they did in the past and underscoring my
point about relatively decreased relevance with respect to the *Democratic*
national party committees in particular.

"The new 527s raised $47 million."

Correct - that we know of, as of the last reporting deadline.  How much is
being raised by groups that haven't triggered any public disclosure
obligations (501(c)6's, for-profit entities, etc.)?  Unknown, and may never
be known, which is precisely my point about focusing the attention where the
light is.

"Both presidential campaigns are raising sufficient funds to finance
virtually all of their campaign needs."  

This I do agree with, but taking off my "shameless partisan" hat for a
second, it's hard to view the exquisite divisiveness of this president as a
positive thing for the overall health of our political system.