Dems ask FEC if they can use soft money for redistricting fights

A Democratic group is asking the Federal Election Committee if they can side-step a 2002 law that restricts members from raising soft money for their campaigns.

According to the Hartford Courant, the National Democratic Redistricting Trust is asking the FEC to allow them to raise soft money so they can fight legal battles that are likely to occur after districts are redrawn after this year’s census.

The NDRT formed last year to head the Democrat party’s legal strategy in redistricting.

While organizations similar to NDRT have raised soft money in the past, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act eliminated the ability to raise soft money.

According to Roll Call, Republicans have traditionally relied on soft money for redistricting, while Democrats have used labor unions and other outside groups to raise funds. Democrats were funded by IMPAC 2000, a 527 organization, during the last round of redistricting, which raised $7.7 million from 2000 to 2003.

The American Majority Project recently created their own 527 organization to help Republicans in the redistricting process. The largest donation collected by AMP to date is $50,000 by the tobacco company Altria.

The Midwest Democracy Network is working on collecting groups who are involved in influencing the redistricting process so far. This is our current list:

National Democratic Redistricting Trust
American Majority Project
IMPAC 2000
The Redistricting Majority Project

If you know of any other groups, please contact us at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).