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It's Time to Stop the Political Fundraising Wars

Escalating charges and jockeying for position could enmire the nation in years of prosecution.

The Vice President
Thursday, September 4th 1997: Whoever's pushing Justice Department buttons has decided that the Vice President's fundraising calls are worthy of another look. But the reasoning seems obscure.

Here are the emerging facts.

It appears that at least $120,000 of $695,000 Vice President Gore raised over the phone from his White House office was diverted into so-called "hard money" accounts by the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Hard money contributions are restricted to a $20,000-per-cycle maximum and are used to directly support campaigns for individual candidates. Soft money contributions are for party building activities and are unrestricted in terms of caps.

Two concerns arise. First: Did the Vice President know that individual soft money contributions were routinely partially channeled -- up to federal limits -- to hard money accounts that directly supported the Clinton-Gore campaign? Second: Did DNC officials violate the law by skimming up to the $20 thousand max from what were soft-money contributions -- especially if the donor was unaware of that some of his or her soft money was converted to hard support?

The White House is insisting that Gore didn't know it was standard procedure for the DNC to channel some of the soft money he was raising from his controversial calls last year as hard money.

Now Reno must, at least, pay some attention to emerging facts, although she may be loathe to do so. For one thing, Reno knows that there may be hundreds, if not thousands of violations to federal election laws on both sides of the aisle. As a matter of projection, the entire Justice Department could be kept busy for a decade merely investigating charges and counter charges emanating from the Capitol Hill headquarters of both major parties. For instance, Democrats could now begin insisting that former GOP Chairman Haley Barbour and several elected officials who were well aware of the Hong Kong loans to an RNC "think tank" be investigated by special prosecutors. Democrats could also begin to draw quid-pro-quo lines between hundreds of corporate and other contributions received by the GOP asking the Attorney General to look into what contributors got from Republican House and Senate leadership in return for their nearly half billion dollar aggregate contribution. Democrats could also push for a special prosecutor to begin investigating Newt Gingrich and his alleged use of charitable contributions for political purposes. It could be never ending, with both parties banging on the doors of Justice urging investigations designed to embarrass each other.

Haley Barbour

The Gore matter appears to rest on the Vice President's prior knowledge of DNC standard operating procedure. But that shouldn't be. Even if the Vice President knew that some soft money would be converted to hard, the telephone calls themselves should be the nexus of the so-called crime and it is a fact that neither the President nor the Vice President is held to standards proscribed under the Hatch Act -- specifically barring phone calls or engaging in political activity from inside federal offices illegal.

Thus, it isn't the law, but the prior statements of the Attorney General which have made this issue stickier than ever for Mr. Gore. Janet Reno seems to be a prisoner of her own words here and extricating herself and the Justice Department from this awkward situation may not be easy. My guess is that she'll try and focus on the prior-knowledge argument. The problem with this tack is that a document could emerge later which shows that Mr. Gore knew about the soft to hard routine at DNC.

Reno has 120 days to decide. Under Justice Department timelines, the next 30 days will be spent deciding whether a "preliminary" investigation is warranted. If so, then there's a 90 day window before a special prosecutor is, or is not, assigned.

No matter the scenario, the nation faces another years-long circus unless Reno decides again to decline even a preliminary investigation. If she does decline, then Reno herself will be subjected to unbridled attack, and may find herself with few open allies at the White House.

It's high time to admit errors in judgment -- as the Vice President already has -- clean up the law, and start anew.

© 1998, 1997, American Politics Journal Publications Inc.