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For immediate release.
Mar. 27, 2007
Contact: Bryan Warner, N.C. Center for Voter Education, 919-839-1200

Landmark McCain-Feingold Turns Five, More Reform Needed to Protect Integrity of Election System

RALEIGH - A half-decade after its passage, the landmark Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), better known as the McCain-Feingold Bill, has successfully regulated big money in elections, while encouraging more participation from small donors.

Yet while the BCRA effectively clamped down on the flow of uncontrolled “soft money” into the coffers of political parties and political action committees (PACs), rivers of private cash are now rushing to a relatively new breed of special-interest organization known as the 527 group.

Named for the section of the IRS code granting them their tax status, 527 organizations have grown more influential in North Carolina’s elections, engaging in attacks on candidates while skirting many of the state’s campaign finance laws designed to protect the integrity and fairness of the election system.

“While McCain-Feingold and our state legislation patterned after it have proven to be a success in regulating money given to political parties and PACs, 527 groups continue to exploit loopholes in the current laws, and that could undermine the democratic process for North Carolina,” says Chris Heagarty, executive director of the nonpartisan N.C. Center for Voter Education.

In recent elections, campaigning by 527 groups has impacted Republican legislative primaries and the state’s nonpartisan judicial races -- in both cases injecting hundreds of thousands of dollars into these contests without alerting voters to the true source of the money.

Under state law, political parties and PACs are prohibited from accepting corporate or labor union money. Yet these regulations do not currently extend to 527 groups, even though they often seek to shape the outcome of elections in the same manner as parties and PACs. The strict disclosure regulations on political contributions, which let voters know who is really funding campaign activity, also do not apply to 527 groups.

The N.C. Center for Voter Education supports efforts to strengthen federal regulation of 527 groups and has called upon North Carolina’s legislature to hold these organizations to the same standard as PACs.

“Why shouldn't groups with the same agendas and methods as PACs have to play by the same rules?” says Heagarty.

The N.C. Center for Voter Education is a Raleigh-based nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, dedicated to improving elections in North Carolina.

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Online: http://www.ncvotered.com