President Bush's campaign and the Republican Party accused Sen. John Kerry and several liberal organizations Wednesday of violating campaign-finance laws, alleging the groups are improperly buying television advertisements to support Kerry and illegally coordinating these advertisements with his campaign.
The accusations come amid an advertising battle in which Bush is using his record-setting war chest to burnish his administration's record and attack his Democratic rival, while the Kerry campaign and a bevy of outside organizations are spending millions to bolster Kerry's presence on the air.The Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee are filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging the activities of the Kerry campaign and its supporters are illegal under the new McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law.
"We want the law enforced because that's the law we are following," said Marc Racicot, chairman of the Bush campaign.
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Both the Kerry campaign and the organizations, which include groups such as the Media Fund and the MoveOn.org Voter Fund, deny they are breaking any laws and say the Republican allegations are politically motivated.
The Republican attack is the latest round in a mostly partisan fight over the role of so-called 527 committees, named for the section of the tax code that created them.
The committees collect unlimited "soft money" contributions from companies, labor unions and wealthy individuals and use that money to finance advertisements, voter-mobilization drives and other election efforts.
The groups are not allowed by law to coordinate their efforts with the campaigns or political parties.
