The GOP is accusing the Kerry campaign of illegally using soft money to buy ads in key markets by coordinating with groups like MoveOn.org in ad buys. One third-party ad focused on Kerry’s economic plan, despite the fact that Kerry hadn’t released his plan yet. Such direct coordination between groups is a major violation of campaign finance laws.
The current crop of rules on campaign finance are horrendous, but they’re also the law, and the Kerry campaign has the obligation to follow them. If the Kerry campaign has been coordinating with third-party groups in this way, they deserve to be heavily fined and closely scruitinized to ensure that these violations don’t continue.
