Did The RNC Take A Slap At McCain?

Coverage Of The RNC Winter Meeting

Members of the Republican Nat'l Committee passed on Thursday a strongly-worded resolution rebuking a signature accomplishment of their party's frontrunner, Sen. John McCain -- his Bipartisan Campaign Finance Act, known as McCain-Feingold.

The 13-paragraph resolution, sponsored by RNC member and campaign finance litigator James Bopp Jr, urges Congress to "adopt common sense reforms of BCRA" by giving political parties "increased freedom to coordinate their activities with their candidates" and allowing parties to use "lawfully raised state funds" -- i.e., soft money -- to register voters and bring them to the polls.

A Whereas clause alleges that BCRA "has made campaign finance regulations unbearably complex," which has "deterred political participation by many average citizens and modest-sized citizens groups," especially state and local parties.

But has BCRA really hurt the GOP? Nationally, as RNC chief of staff selected Kelley McCullough noted in her farewell address, the party managed to raise about as much as it did before soft money was banned, and was able to expand its donor base by more than 170,000. But state parties took the brunt of the impact because they can now only use federal money for party programs that benefit both federal and state/local candidates.

The RNC has set $76 million for its 2007 fundraising goals.

It's unlikely that McCain will repudiate the thrust of BCRA, although he has been open to changing his mind on further campaign finance regulation. He recently dropped his support of an ethics reform provision that "grassroots" groups like Nat'l Right To Life and the ACLU worried would be too onerous on small organizations engaged in political or lobbying group. [MARC AMBINDER]