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The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
Money matters as race gets under way
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
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President Bush enjoys a 50-to-1 advantage over Sen. John Kerry in cash on hand.
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| ON CNN TV | 
Watch CNN-USA now: Soledad O'Brien, Bill Hemmer and Jack Cafferty lead the "American Morning" team's coverage of President Bush's campaign efforts in the West and John Kerry's stumping ahead of Tuesday's primaries in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
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VIDEO
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CNN's John King on how the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign is off and running with ads.
CNN's David Ensor on John Kerry and the battle with Bush on security issues.
CNN's Howard Kurtz analyzes President Bush's new campaign ads.
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| UPCOMING PRIMARIES |
• Tuesday, March 9: Primaries in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas • Sunday, March 14: Nevada county caucuses • Tuesday, March 16: Illinois primary • Saturday, March 20: Wyoming and Alaska Democratic caucuses When is your primary? For more key dates in the 2004 election season, see our special America Votes 2004 Election Calendar |
SPECIAL REPORT
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The cash realities of the 2004 campaign hit home Thursday for Democrats when Republicans launched a heavy first round of glossy TV ads, an opening shot that indicates Sen. John Kerry and his allies will have to work overtime to make sure they'll have the money to compete over the next eight months.
Kerry got little time to savor the joys of his Democratic victory before he was reminded that Bush enjoys a 50-to-1 advantage in cash on hand. While he raised $1.2 million on the Internet the day after his Super Tuesday wins, the senator is seeking help from the Democratic Party he now controls.
Some help is coming from two major, if predictable, groups -- the Democratic National Committee and the MoveOn.org political action committee -- which are firing off separate fund-raising letters on Kerry's behalf to as many as 4 million donors.
"Will we let the Bush campaign define this election, distorting his record and mine in the process? Or will we carry the momentum of yesterday's enormous victory forward with energy and enthusiasm?" Kerry wrote in the DNC-sponsored letter.
"Together, we have to fight for every vote and answer every challenge. Let's roll up our sleeves and go to work. I am confident that, working side by side, we can take on any challenge and win."
In addition to donations, Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org's PAC said his group already had received commitments from donors to spend some 5 million hours working on Kerry's behalf.
"The big question is whether Kerry will have the resources in this key moment to powerfully respond to the Republican attacks and present his positive vision for our country," Pariser wrote in his fund-raising appeal.
"Together, we can answer this question. If you've been holding off on contributing to a presidential campaign, now's the time to jump in. We have a Democratic nominee, and he needs our support today."
MoveOn.org also is responding to Bush's new ads with one of its own.
MoveOn.org's ad buy, which starts running Thursday in 17 states, is less than half as large as Bush's. (MoveOn.org is spending $1.9 million over five days; the Bush-Cheney campaign is spending $4.5 million over two weeks.)
But MoveOn.org takes aim directly at Bush, criticizing a push to eliminate overtime pay for workers and the outsourcing of jobs. (The four new Bush-Cheney ads don't even make a slight reference to Kerry.) The MoveOn.org ads will run over five days at medium levels on broadcast stations in 67 media markets.
On a much larger scale, however, Democrats are working Thursday to overcome a GOP-led effort at the Federal Election Commission to shut down fund raising by 527 groups, PACs such as MoveOn.org and the Media Fund, that could contribute as much as $70 million to anti-Bush efforts this fall.
Republicans have asked the FEC to examine the legality of the groups' spending, saying it violates soft-money restrictions mandated under the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law.
The FEC was scheduled to meet Thursday morning to consider proposals by its general counsel to:
• Require the 527 groups to raise at least a quarter, and possibly much more, of their cash in hard-money contributions of $5,000 or less. Hard money is much more difficult to raise, and the 527 Democratic groups had been planning on financing most of their activities with soft money.
• Partial bans, depending on the time period, on the use of corporate and union money for voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities with a partisan tilt.
• New spending thresholds that would appear to put under FEC regulatory jurisdiction some of the pro-Democratic groups not currently registered at the FEC.
An hour before the commission meets, however, several Democrat-friendly groups who oppose the FEC staff report plan to hold a news conference at the Grand Hyatt Washington. Speakers will include Ralph Neas of People for the American Way, Carl Pope of the Sierra Club and Cecile Richards of America Votes. Members of Congress also were expected to attend.
VP tea leaves
In what is likely to be the source of speculation for a while in the campaign, the Grind wanted to share the latest rumblings on the VP patrol.
These tea leaves could reveal major movement on the vice presidential front. Or they could mean nothing at all. Among the politicians' names to surface among speculators:
• Sen. Bob Graham: At the beginning of Kerry's town hall meeting in Orlando, Florida, CNN's Candy Crowley noted that the senator gave props to his retiring colleague, Graham. But he noted that Graham is wrapping up "this" part of his political career. "This" part?
• Sen. Joe Lieberman: Also Thursday, Lieberman will give his first Senate floor speech since he ended his presidential campaign February 3. Aides said Lieberman's speech will "focus on the pressing domestic and foreign policy challenges our nation faces between now and the November election, especially the growing crisis in Iraq." In his speech, aides said, the senator will "challenge both parties to focus on addressing this crisis."
• Sen. Hillary Clinton: And of course, what VP patrol would be complete without a conversation with the junior senator from New York, who told CNN's Lou Dobbs on Wednesday that she's not interested in seeking the vice presidency this year. Here's what she told Dobbs:
DOBBS: Do you want to be Vice President?
CLINTON: No, I'm having a great time being senator. Talking to you about an issue that I care deeply about. [She appeared to discuss her speech Wednesday on trade and jobs.]
DOBBS: Let me put it another way, are you open to the idea?
CLINTON: You know, that is totally up to the nominee, and I don't think I would ever be offered. I don't think I would accept. Obviously, I want to do everything I can to see John Kerry elected president.
DOBBS: Do you think you would be helpful in that role as the vice presidential candidate?
CLINTON: I think I can be helpful in my role as senator. I think I can do a lot to help people focus on the strengths of our candidate and the weaknesses frankly of the opposition. We now have evidence; it's no longer speculative about what that administration means for our country at home and abroad. I think we're going to be able to make a very convincing case.
Don't fret too much if you missed the interview with Clinton. The senator surely will face similar questions again many times before her party's convention.
