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Home Front: Politix
Gore Pledges Over $6 Million to Democrats
2004-04-29
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al Gore, drawing from his 2000 campaign accounts, said Wednesday he will donate more than $6 million to five Democratic Party groups and help John Kerry fight President Bush's ``outrageous and misleading'' re-election bid. The former vice president pledged to donate $4 million to the Democratic National Committee. The party's Senate and House committees each will get $1 million, and the party from Gore's home state of Tennessee would receive $250,000. The Democratic Party in Florida, site of the divisive 2000 election recount, will get $240,000 from a separate Gore campaign account.
Maybe if you'd spent the money in 2000, Al, you'd be President today.
``The outcome of this election is extremely important for the future of our country and for all that America stands for,'' Gore said. ``I want to help John Kerry become president and I want to help Democrats retake control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.''
So much for the future of our country.
Gore, who favored Howard Dean over Kerry in the fight for the Democratic nomination, met privately with the presumptive nominee Tuesday at a Cleveland hotel. ``John will be a great president for all Americans, and I want to do everything I can to help him fight against the outrageous and misleading campaign being waged by the Bush-Cheney campaign,'' Gore said.

Most of the money comes from Gore's general election legal and accounting compliance fund, which showed $6.6 million on March 31. The $240,000 going to the Florida Democratic Party comes from an account established to help pay for the 2000 recount drive. Under FEC rules, money in such compliance funds can only be used to pay for lawyers and accountants to comply with federal election law. But the rules also permit money left over in such accounts to be transferred to a national, state or local party committee, or to be donated to charity.

Gore could not transfer or donate the money directly to the Kerry campaign. But by transferring it to the DNC and other committees, restrictions under which the money was originally raised would no longer be in effect, FEC officials said.
Sweet scam. I guess the McCain-Feingold reform didn't close this door.
Posted by:Steve White

#11  Considering that Gore endorsed Dean and probably detests Kerry, this is a form of deep cosmic irony.
Posted by: mhw   2004-04-29 5:29:52 PM  

#10  I consider this a good thing. Everything Al Gore touches turns to stone.
Posted by: B   2004-04-29 5:37:05 PM  

#9  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: mhw TROLL   2004-04-29 5:29:52 PM  

#8  Al Gore, drawing from his 2000 campaign accounts, said Wednesday he will donate more than $6 million to five Democratic Party groups and help John Kerry fight President Bush's ``outrageous and misleading'' re-election bid.

What's so "misleading" about a re-election bid?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-04-29 10:56:57 AM  

#7  "Someday, John, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day accept this money as a gift for the Democratic National Committee."
Posted by: Steve   2004-04-29 8:48:06 AM  

#6  Possibly it's just a late cash transfusion from his Chinese contributors....
Posted by: Frank G   2004-04-29 7:59:08 AM  

#5  Never, ever end a close election with money in the bank. You should be in max allowable debt.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-04-29 7:29:58 AM  

#4  Actually, I think this is legit by the letter of the law. I remember listening to a call on a radio talk show several years ago about what would happen to Hillary's campaign war chest if she faked a Senatorial bid and then pulled out late in the game after amassing a large bankroll. I believe that the law stated that the candidate may keep the war chest and use it for "future political activity."

Al probably kept his bankroll planning on a run in '04. As he got ready to run, somebody pointed out to him that the controversy regarding the recommendations of the Gore Commission made him unelectable as president post-9/11. In that he had zero chance on recapturing his Tenn. Senate seat, his future political activity was limited to helping others. Because the money was originally laundered collected as hard money, he can probably redistribute the cash as hard money.
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-04-29 5:23:08 AM  

#3  Obviously he raised all this money over the internet that he invented for just this purpose.

Could $6m buy one onto the Kerry ticket? I do hope so.
Posted by: BruceBruce   2004-04-29 3:17:43 AM  

#2  Steve W. - McCain-Feingold doesn't apply to Al. He's above any such pesky details. Remember he said that Bush "Played on our fears", thus his exemption from "Mc-F"
Posted by: BigEd   2004-04-29 2:56:11 AM  

#1  Lol! I wonder if his contributors (Remember them at the last 4 Xmases, AlGore?) realized he still had $6.6M of their money... I mean, it's not like it's really his, now is it?

So who got / gets the interest?

Hmmmmm, if you had popped that into a few nice govt bonds or decent rate commercial papers 4 years ago...

Geez, what a loophole-riddled joke the election finance laws are... This is almost as slimy and smelly as UNSCAM, IMNVHO.
Posted by: .com   2004-04-29 2:42:57 AM  

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