Prometheus 6

Feds Take On Outside Political Groups
The Federal Election Commission sues the Club for Growth, a conservative political group, and has launched probes into similar orgainizations
By VIVECA NOVAK

A campaign-finance loophole is suddenly getting squeezed. A year after so-called 527 political groups, like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and America Coming Together, played a piviotal role in the election and drew the ire of political figures on both sides of the aisle, the Federal Election Commission is taking closer look at their activities. The agency filed suit last week against the Club for Growth, a pro-free market, anti-tax group that raised $8.5 million last year and targeted, among others, former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle. The FEC's lawsuit, which accuses the conservative group of operating as a political committee which is therefore subject to caps on contributions, could be the first in a string of similar actions. America Coming Together, the mammoth pro-Democratic voter mobilization group, is also being investigated by the FEC, the group's former CEO, Steve Rosenthal, told TIME. America Coming Together and its counterpart, the Media Fund, raised nearly $200 million in the 2004 election cycle for get-out-the-vote efforts and ads in battleground states. Election lawyers in Washington say the FEC has been papering other 527s with subpoenas.