A4


Politics & The Nation


S


KLMNO An aggressive search


for Republican dirt Democrats digging harder than ever to undermine opponents


by Philip Rucker


The Democratic Party is moving faster and more aggressively than in previous election years to dig up unflattering details about Re- publican challengers. In House races from New Jersey to Ohio to California, Democratic operatives are seizing on evidence of GOP candidates’ unpaid income taxes, property tax breaks and ties to fi- nancial firms that received tax- payer bailout money. In recent weeks, the Democrat- ic Congressional Campaign Com- mittee has circulated information to local reporters about Repub- lican candidates in close races. Among the claims:  That Jim Renacci of Ohio once owed nearly $1.4 million in un- paid state taxes.  That David Harmer of Califor- nia received $160,000 in bonus and severance pay from a firm that got a federal bailout.  That Jon Runyan of New Jersey got a legal break in property taxes for his 25-acre homestead by qual- ifying for a farmland assessment thanks to his four donkeys. Renacci’s campaign said the candidate did not believe he had tax liabilities for a trust fund and eventually paid all that he owed. A spokesman for Harmer said crit- icizing him for the money he law- fully earned is a “severe twist of the facts.” Runyan’s campaign said his actions were legal. Jon Vogel, executive director of the DCCC, said Democrats are merely pointing out that some Re- publican recruits in competitive House races are “flawed candi- dates.” He added, “We have made this


election a choice. . . . They’re try- ing to run this national message in part about fiscal discipline, but they’ve recruited a number of can- didates not credible to carry that message.”


Opposition research has been a


part of political campaigns for decades, but the 2010 cycle is dif- ferent. In many states, Repub- licans have steered clear of candi- dates with long political track rec- ords — eschewing state representatives and veteran city council members who have cast thousands of votes ripe for scruti- ny — in favor of political outsiders. The top GOP recruits include sev- eral former professional sports stars, as well as doctors and busi- nessmen. Democratic leaders are trying


to frame the November midterm elections not as a national referen- dum on the party in power but as local choices between two candi- dates. “We can win the contrast, but not the referendum,” Democratic strategist Steve Murphy said. “What is critical in this election cycle is for Democratic candidates to hold Republican candidates ac- countable for their views.” Republicans see the Democrats’


strategy as a sign of weakness. “When the issues are cutting against you, it is typical for a party in trouble to resort to other means,” said Ken Spain, spokes- man for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “With the unemployment rate unaccept- ably high and President Obama’s approval rating falling, they have nothing left to run on other than character assassination.” Democratic officials are advis- ing campaigns to hire trackers to follow their Republican oppo- nents to public events with video cameras, ready to catch any gaffe or misstatement. And the Demo- cratic National Committee last week issued a call to the public to submit any embarrassing audio or video of Republicans, as well as copies of their direct-mail adver- tisements. Party officials would not say how many staffers are working on opposition research. Such work used to be farmed out to cam- paign consultants, but the DCCC brought research operations in- house in 2008 to be more nimble. “It may appear to be more aggres- sive this cycle because what we’re finding on Republicans is so rich,” Vogel said. In Ohio, Democrats are trying


to exploit Renacci’s business rec- ord in his race against Rep. John Boccieri (D). Renacci, who owns a Chevrolet dealership, nursing homes, real estate investments and sports teams, among other in- terests, has faced a string of law- suits related to his businesses. Democratic operatives circulat- ed a report in April that Renacci owed nearly $1.4 million in un- paid state taxes, interest and pen- alties. Renacci fought the assess- ment, believing the money he was holding in a trust was free of state tax liabilities. But after losing a dispute over his liability, Renacci paid everything he owed, said his campaign manager, James Sle- pian. “This is a story that the DCCC was pushing pretty hard,” Slepian said. “It’s unfortunate that John Boccieri has chosen to conduct his campaign from slinging mud from behind Nancy Pelosi’s desk rather than talking about the is- sues that really matter.” But Democrats say the strategy paid dividends in the May special election for the Pennsylvania House seat of the late Democrat John P. Murtha. Republican Tim Burns framed the race as a refer- endum on Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), both unpopular in a district that Obama lost to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008. But Democrat Mark Critz won handily after tail- oring his message to local con- cerns and attacking Burns for say- ing he would protect tax breaks for companies that ship jobs over- seas.


“Some years you ride the wave, and other years you paddle your canoe,” Democratic strategist Paul Begala said. “Democrats, they’ve got to paddle like hell. So what you do when you’re paddling is, as the Republicans seek to nationalize, you localize and personalize.” ruckerp@washpost.com


WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010 Unions spending big on campaign ads


Corporate giving is less than predicted after court freed up money


by T.W. Farnam


Labor unions have dominated spending on independent cam- paign ads so far this election sea- son, despite a recent Supreme Court decision that freed spend- ing by corporations, a Washing- ton Post analysis shows. The findings are an indication


that corporate money is not flooding into campaigns as many predicted would happen after the landmark decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elec- tion Commission. So far this year, $24.7 million in independent spending has been reported to the Federal Election Commission, campaign filings show. Unions have spent $9.7 million (or 39 percent of the total), compared with $6.4 mil- lion (26 percent) spent by indi- viduals and $3.4 million spent by corporations. Not all spending on political ads is included in the totals. Is- sue ads, which mention candi- dates and their positions but of- fer no candidate endorsement, do not have to be reported to the government unless they run di- rectly before an election. In January, the Supreme Court struck down laws and previous cases that prohibited corpora- tions from paying for hard-hit- ting campaign ads. But some ar- gue that corporations are still likely to begin spending heavily on campaigns. “We would be very pleasantly surprised if there’s not a gusher of special interest money,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in an interview. “Very few people play in the primaries — most of this money is almost always spent in the general election.” Van Hollen is pushing a bill


the House recently passed that would require funding sources for advertising to be disclosed. The measure faces uncertain prospects in the Senate. Several large corporate-


backed groups have yet to fully open their war chests for cam- paign ads. The conservative


MELINA MARA/THE WASHINGTON POST


“We would be very pleasantly surprised if there’s not a gusher of special interest money,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), adding: “Most of this money is almost always spent in the general election.”


group American Crossroads raised $8.5 million in June, said its president, Steven Law. “Donors who are from the cen- ter-right side of the spectrum are going to close the gap this year,” he said. “There’s both an oppor- tunity in this election cycle to achieve real progress and a large sense of concern in the direction of Washington.” The group’s funding has come from an even split of individuals and corporations, he said. The U.S. Chamber of Com- merce, the nation’s largest busi- ness group, has recently in- creased its political advertising budget this year, according to one published report. Chamber President Thomas J. Donohue said during a recent speech that the group had upped its political budget from $50 million to $75 million, according to a per- son at the event who spoke with the Center for Public Integrity. A Chamber spokesman would nei- ther confirm nor deny the re- port.


Groups active in the cam- paigns are taking different ap- proaches to how they will report spending. A new liberal group called Commonsense Ten recent- ly requested a legal clarification


from the Federal Election Com- mission on the appropriate way to accept corporate money, say- ing that it will reveal its donors. “Believing that ‘sunlight is said to be the best of disin- fectants,’ Commonsense Ten plans instead to engage in fully disclosed activity as a federally registered political committee,” the group wrote. The anti-tax group Club for Growth requested a similar clar- ification and said it intends to disclose all donors. Law said his group recently es- tablished a nonprofit corpora- tion, which means it can accept money from donors without be- ing required to disclose their names. “There are some donors who care about that,” he said. Such a nonprofit corporation faces certain restrictions on elec- tion spending under the U.S. tax code, however. The Service Employees Inter-


national Union has disclosed spending $4.6 million on inde- pendent ads this year, more than any other group. Americans for Job Security, which is incorpo- rated as a business association, has disclosed the second-highest amount, $1.5 million. The Cham- ber of Commerce ranked third in


spending, with $1.4 million in ads. Several of the top groups were union-backed operations with names such as Working Amer- ica, Arkansans for Change and Patriot Majority. The House dis- closure bill would require those groups to list in advertisements the names of unions backing them. Independent groups spent


$8.1 million on the Democratic Senate primary in Arkansas, far more than any other race. Sen. Blanche Lincoln defeated union- backed Lt. Gov. Bill Halter in a June 8 runoff election in that state. Brett Kappel, an election law- yer with Arent Fox who repre- sents corporations and trade as- sociations, said that his clients have been solicited by groups hoping to run election ads and that many corporations will take the court ruling as an invitation to participate in electioneering. “There’s nothing corporations


like better than clear legal rules,” he said, but added: “My impres- sion is they’re going to wait and see how this cycle goes before they go into making independ- ent expenditures of their own.” farnamt@washpost.com


Many Republicans losing confidence in Steele steele from A1


[Steele] to invest their money wisely. . . . They just don’t think the RNC is a smart place to invest their money right now." As a result, other Republican


Party committees and outside groups have stepped in to take up the RNC’s slack and are trying to steer reluctant donors toward them. Mississippi Gov. Haley Bar-


bour, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, has turned his operation into a fund- raising powerhouse in part through the help of major donors


who had been longtime backers of the RNC. Last week, the com- mittee reported raising a record $19million in the second quarter of the year. The RGA said it has raised almost twice as much in the first half of this year as in any comparable period in the past. GOP strategists said Barbour has benefited from his longtime con- nections to major GOP fund- raisers and from the turbulence at the RNC. As Steele’s perceived effective- ness as a party leader has dimin- ished, Barbour, a former RNC chairman, has positioned himself as one of the party’s leading spokesmen.


Other GOP operations have also taken advantage of the RNC’s difficulties. This weekend, the National Republican Senato- rial Committee will hold a fund- raiser in Maine. The sponsors in- clude a who’s who of RNC finance chairmen and major fundraisers from the past, according to the invitation, which was first pub- lished by Politico. “After much de- liberation,” they said, “we have decided our focus should be on making gains in the United States Senate. . . . We have decided to get together to help the NRSC.” Earlier, former party chairman Ed Gillespie and former White House senior adviser Karl Rove established American Cross- roads, a “527” group whose goal is to raise $50 million to help fund Republican candidates. The group reported last week that it raised more than $8 million in June.


Another example is a joint ven- ture by the RNC, the senatorial committee and the National Re- publican Congressional Commit- tee. According to one RNC mem- ber, the two other committees de- manded that all money in the fund be used only for House and


Senate candidates. One official said the RNC balked at the terms, but RNC spokesman Doug Heye said, “There was no resistance.” Heye took issue with criticism of the RNC under Steele, noting that the organization has raised more than the Democratic Na- tional Committee in 10 of the 18 months of this election cycle. He conceded that there has been a falloff in donations but said: “We’ve got a few challenges. One is an economy that makes it difficult for a lot of major donor giving. Two, for the first time in 16 years we don’t have the White House, the House or the Senate or any combination of that. And we’re not able to take soft money.” Heye also confirmed that the


national committee has revised down its budget for political op- erations this fall, which could af- fect GOP efforts to mobilize vot- ers in November. But he said budget revisions have been com- monplace at the RNC in some past years.


Steele spent the Fourth of July


weekend reaching out to leading Republicans in an effort to clean up from his comment last week that the conflict in Afghanistan is “a war of Obama’s choosing” and not one the United States “had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.” The comments created the big-


gest crisis of Steele’s mistake- plagued tenure as chairman. Two prominent GOP senators, John McCain (Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), condemned the remarks but stopped short of calling for his resignation. How- ever, the Weekly Standard’s Wil- liam Kristol and Liz Cheney, the daughter of former vice president Richard B. Cheney, said Steele should step down. Party officials said Tuesday that there is little prospect of a


change at the top of the RNC for now, in part because of the dis- ruption that forcing Steele out would create four months before the midterm elections. “Right now, Republicans all need to focus on the critical elec- tions our country faces this No- vember, not on who holds what title in the party structure,” said Katon Dawson, a former GOP chairman in South Carolina who had sought the chairmanship that Steele won. Steele’s only reaction to the controversy came in a written statement issued last Friday in which he said he supports the war in Afghanistan. He has made no public comment and canceled an appearance at the Aspen Ideas Festival later this week. Dawson predicted that Steele will survive through November but also said he “will go down as one of the most controversial chairs” in the history of the party. He said Steele has become a dis- traction “not only in the message arena, but in the on-the-ground fundraising” that has been im- portant to the party’s success in mobilizing voters. Whether Steele can win an- other term as chairman is more doubtful, according to Repub- licans on and off the national committee. He has worked skill- fully to maintain support of RNC members through extensive trav- el to states and territories. But committee members and party strategists said there is a differ- ence in the way committee mem- bers, even those who backed Steele for chairman, now talk about his leadership and his fu- ture. Said one former RNC offi- cial, “I do think it’s made it hard- er for him to stand for reelection in January.”


balzd@washpost.com chris.cillizza@washingtonpost.com


Obama to appoint new Medicare, Medicaid head Associated Press


President Obama intends to use


a recess appointment to install Donald Berwick as the head of the government’s Medicare and Med- icaid programs, a White House of- ficial said Tuesday. Obama will make the appoint- ment Wednesday, White House


Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement. Law- makers are out of town for their annual Fourth of July break. A recess appointment would al-


low Berwick to assume the post of administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services without undergoing confirmation hearings in the Senate. Repub- licans have indicated they are pre-


pared to oppose his confirmation over comments he has made, in- cluding on the rationing of med- ical care. Berwick was nominated in April, but no confirmation hearing had been scheduled. Pfeiffer noted that CMS has been without a per- manent administrator since 2006. Obama last made a batch of re- cess appointments in March.


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