Midnight, February 2, was the deadline for political organizations to file IRS form 8872, disclosing full financial information including donors.
The group called “Americans for Jobs, Healthcare
[sic], and Progressive Values” has no 8872 filing online. The group
started in November,
ran three anti-Howard Dean ads including one
picturing Osama bin Laden, and is now inactive.
Tuesday morning, February 3, I reached the group’s
treasurer, David W. Jones, a Democratic fundraiser in DC. Jones said
the organization
is not dissolving but that he is the sole officer
listed. He referred me to Kenneth A. Gross, a partner in law firm
Skadden, Arps who has been
with “Americans for Jobs etc” from its beginning,
regarding the filing.
Gross, who lives in Bethesda, Maryland, served
in the Federal Election Commission for six years under Reagan. He
confirmed that he was
counsel for Bob Dole’s campaign committees in
2000 and 1996. “I’m a man of all trades,” he said affably.
“I represent both Democrats
and Republicans; I’m one of the few who do.”
Currently, Gross is counsel for the 2004 Republican national convention;
he is also general
counsel for the Republican Leadership Council.
The RLC’s 2003-2004 Strategy Meeting featured Gross as a speaker on campaign
finance reform.
Gross explained that the organization had filed the 8872 by fax the previous
Friday, but “I guess they haven’t scanned it into the system yet.”
He said the group could not file electronically,
because “The IRS failed to give us a PIN number.” “They’re not very
well equipped,” Gross commented.
“It’s totally their fault. It’s not our
fault at all.” So “we worked it out with Ogden, Utah [IRS office],”
and faxed it in. When I asked to see the filing,
Gross turned me back over to Jones, who provided
the same explanation.
Jones offered to fax me the filing on Tuesday but did not. Gross
said that the filing was handled by Mark Ward, in his office. I called
Ward
on Wednesday to request the document, leaving
my mail address and a fax number, and he promptly returned the call.
He explained that he did not
himself have a copy of the filing, and that he
could not get into either the fax machine or the photocopier without a
client number (“This is such a
dumb thing to be held up by, you’ll think, what
planet did I drop from”), but would try to see what he could do, and suggested
that I call Dave Jones.
Later on Wednesday, Melissa Miles, a SkadArps attorney representing Jones,
called. She explained that “Dave knows he’s legally required
to make a copy available,” within regular business
hours, and suggested I visit Jones’ office. I told her that I could
visit the next day.
Thursday afternoon, after repeated messages, Jones
called me, saying he had just returned from New York. He offered
to overnight the filing to me,
saying that he had to show me the “original,”
and assuring me that he would UPS it to my home on Friday.
Seven Democratic primaries and three caucuses
have taken place between the filing deadline and this column; the Iowa
caucuses and the New
Hampshire primary took place before the filing
deadline; Tennessee and Virginia hold primaries tomorrow.
The Bin Laden ad damaged Dean and basically ended
Gephardt’s candidacy. Jones, formerly a fundraiser for Gephardt among
others, emphasized
that the ads were not coordinated with any campaign.
Howard Dean is still second in delegates behind John Kerry, and the race
is still early.
Jones, however, insisted vehemently and angrily
that Dean is “out.” Dean has raised his donations directly from voters
rather than through
professional fundraisers.
Meanwhile, the filing I belatedly saw, dated January
30, shows that “Americans for Jobs” received $663,000 from 26 donors.
There is nothing
“progressive” about the over-all profile.
Two-thirds of the donations came from corporate sources; two executives
gave $100,000 each, and
another gave $50,000. About $80,000 came
from attorneys. The Torricelli for Senate Committee also kicked in
$50,000. Six labor unions gave
the other $200,000; this is probably one of the
few times that the international laborers’ union and Loral tobacco have
donated to the same entity.
Expenditures, besides the half-million for television,
included $40,000 for Jones’ consultancy firm and $15,000 for Skadden, Arps.
Too bad the IRS ate their homework.
Surely, the impact of the loathsome “Osama” ad
was foreseeable. Photos of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, after
all,
were very effective against Democratic senator
and decorated Vietnam veteran Max Cleland, in Georgia.
Margie Burns, a writer and teacher who lives in Cheverly, can be reached
at margie.burns@verizon.net.
Her columns appear in the Journal every Monday.