The Trail

Sunday, March 23, 2008

TAKING ON MCCAIN

Hyde Park Project Launched

With Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) so busy beating up on each other, it has fallen to other Democrats to do opposition research on the presumptive GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). That somebody would be the Center for American Progress Action Fund, which unveiled on Friday the first installment of its Hyde Park Project.

The center's president, John D. Podesta, said his think tank has been working for months to "both defend progressive ideas and also provide an informed critique of where conservatives are going in the wrong direction" during this presidential year.

A quartet of CAP fellows -- Robert Gordon, Peter Harbage, James Kvaal and Jeanne Lambrew -- analyzed in detail on Friday McCain's tax and health-care proposals. The bottom line: They didn't like them.

McCain's tax plan, Gordon and Kvaal said, would cost more than $2 trillion over the next decade, delivering 58 percent of its benefits to the top 1 percent of taxpayers and 4 percent of benefits to the bottom 60 percent of taxpayers.

Lambrew and Harbage questioned whether McCain's health-care agenda would increase Americans' access to insurance, arguing that it resembles President Bush's approach and would undermine individuals' ability to obtain high-quality coverage.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain's senior policy adviser, said it is unfair to judge McCain's health-care plan by Bush's record because McCain is offering a refundable tax credit, which is more progressive. Gordon and Kvaal have a point on tax cuts, Holtz-Eakin said, though he added that voters should wait until the senator fleshes out his tax proposal before passing judgment.

"It will make deficits expand up front, no question," Holtz-Eakin said, adding that helping corporations ultimately helps workers because it ensures an employer remains internationally competitive. "That place has to be economically viable; otherwise, they have a problem."

-- Juliet Eilperin

A $4.4 MILLION OVERAGE

McCain Surpasses Spending Caps

McCain has officially broken the limits imposed by the presidential public financing system, according to reports filed last week by the campaign.

McCain has spent $58.4 million on his primary effort. Those who have committed to public financing can spend no more than $54 million on their primary bid.

So has McCain broken the law? The answer is far from simple, depending on whether he has withdrawn from the public matching program.

McCain's lawyers argue that the spending cap no longer applies. The Arizona senator was certified to enter the program last year when he was starved for cash. But once he started to win, he decided to hold off. On Feb. 6, after his Super Tuesday victories, he wrote to the FEC to announce he would withdraw. His lawyers said that gave him freedom to spend as much as he wanted.

But Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason wrote McCain's campaign last month to alert him that the commission had not yet granted that withdrawal request, and that the commission would first need to vote on the matter. A snag: The FEC has four vacancies and therefore lacks a quorum to consider the matter.

Meanwhile, McCain's fundraising has roared ahead, now that he is the presumptive Republican nominee. McCain's campaign said Friday that it sees no ambiguity in the law.

"The FEC regulations specifically state that candidates who do not receive public funding payments from the U. S. Treasury are exempt from the primary spending ceiling," a senior McCain official said in an e-mail.

-- Matthew Mosk

DEMOCRATIC MONEY FLOWING

Superdelegates Profit

February proved a profitable month for superdelegates.

Three of the Democratic Party's highly sought-after superdelegates -- all three of whom support Clinton -- appeared in her Federal Election Commission report filed last week.

A fourth, Jeremy Bernard, is a partner in a California fundraising firm that was paid $114,000 by Obama's campaign.

Superdelegates are the Democratic elected officials, party dignitaries and other key party leaders, who are likely to play a critical role in selecting the nominee at the Democratic National Convention. Because of their interest in politics, campaign officials have said it is not surprising that some might be involved in campaign work; the party has no rules prohibiting campaigns from paying superdelegates.

The firm owned by former Rhode Island Democratic state chairman and superdelegate Mark Weiner took in $678,000 from the Clinton campaign for supplying campaign products such as bumper stickers and yard signs. His firm, Financial Innovations, has been paid more than $1.5 million over the course of the campaign, according to the reports.

Factotum Productions, a Massachusetts business run by Clinton superdelegate Gus Bickford, was paid $8,000 in November for consulting that started the day he endorsed Clinton. Payments continued in February, to the tune of another $11,000. The campaign also made payments to Kathleen Healy, based at the same Westford, Mass., address as Factotum.

The Clinton campaign has paid the marketing firm run by a third superdelegate, Steve Grossman, about $3,000 for printing costs. The campaign owes the firm another $18,000, the FEC filing shows.

-- Matthew Mosk