Yesterday's Supreme Court decision weakening the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law is already having an impact on the presidential race.
The law "banned corporate- and union-funded ads that mentioned a federal candidate within 30 days of a primary and 60 days of a general election," reports The Hill's Alexander Bolton. After yesterday's ruling striking down this provision, corporations and unions can "pour millions of dollars into television and radio ads that focus on an issue before Congress and other government bodies," which could be used to target John McCain on immigration or Hillary Clinton on energy, for example. Conversely, the same advocacy groups would have less freedom to target presidential candidates who don't hold federal office.
As the fundraising quarter closes, Mitt Romney is donating an undisclosed amount of his personal money to his campaign, reports the New York Times' Michael Luo. Romney, whose fortune is estimated at about $350 million, gave a $2.35 million loan to his campaign last quarter as part of his $23 million fundraising haul.
Both the Supreme Court ruling and poor fundraising expectations have been a drag on the McCain campaign, but yesterday he won the endorsement of Greenville, S.C., Mayor Knox White. The Greenville News' Dan Hoover reports McCain wrote off his decline in state and national polls as "the ups and downs in campaigning." McCain said he would continue to work hard and that his campaign is "extremely healthy." Later, McCain said those who say he's considered dropping out this summer are "smoking something strong than is legal here in the state of South Carolina." (View here.)
Lost in all the focus on presidential money has been the finances of the four congressional committees so far this year, writes the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza. The Democratic committees out raised their Republican counterparts by $12 million. However, Republicans spent more, leaving the DSCC and DCCC with a combined $25.5 million cash-on-hand compared to the NRSC and NRCC's total $6.1 million in cash. The disparity means Republicans will have a harder time going after Democratic seats because once the GOP's nominee is chosen, the RNC will devote most of its efforts and money on winning the White House.
Meanwhile, the DNC is attacking Fred Thompson for his time as a lobbyist, support of Scooter Libby and a "thin Senate record," reports The Politico's Mike Allen.
In Chicago yesterday, Barack Obama indirectly attacked Hillary Clinton after questions arose about his White House qualifications, reports the Chicago Sun-Times' Scott Fornek. "I think that we're all very qualified for the job. The question is who can inspire the nation to get us past the politics that have bogged us down in the past. That was true, by the way, in the '90s as well as more recently." Obama also painted himself as the underdog , saying the Clintons have a "lot of chits out there," after eight years in the White House. "We're just trying to make sure that we can raise the paltry sums that allow us to compete."
In New York, Clinton raised about $2 million from Indian-American donors across the country, reports the New York Daily News' Michael McAuliff and Helen Kennedy. The dinner came after Obama's campaign irked the community by attacking Clinton's ties to Indian business, but the Clintons have been courting the community for more than a decade.
Finally, two new ads are going up in the early states. In New Hampshire, John Edwards is airing his first television ad in which he says "it's time for the president of the United States to ask Americans to be patriotic about something other than war." In Iowa, the "Draft Gore Committee" is airing a 30-second radio spot saying "Al Gore: Right on Iraq, right on global warming, right for the 21st Century."
Get these and today's other election stories at RCP's Politics and Elections page.
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