Campaign Money Watch

Campaign Money Watch is a liberal political advocacy organization and a project of Public Campaign Action Fund.

According to a June 10, 2008 Wall Street Journal article, "launched a television ad and filed federal complaints Monday about Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his campaign's ties to lobbyists. ... European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., the parent company of airplane-manufacturer Airbus, beat U.S.-based Boeing Co. for the $35 billion Pentagon contract earlier this year. Sen. McCain's investigations into corruption surrounding the tanker contract helped kill the deal for Boeing in 2004. The lobbyists for EADS's U.S. affiliate on the tanker deal included the firm of Tom Loeffler, the McCain campaign's former finance chairman. ...  Another employee of The Loeffler Group, Susan Nelson, continued to collect payments from the lobbying firm this year while she was on the McCain-campaign payroll as its fund-raising coordinator, Newsweek reported last month. ... The group also charged that 3eDC, an Internet firm co-owned by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, improperly cut the amount the campaign owed it by $107,000. ... The Republican National Committee put out a news release to publicize Campaign Money Watch's funding from wealthy Democratic activists, including financier George Soros."

Also on June 10, 2008 the Associated Press reported that "Campaign Money Watch is a nonprofit organization known as a 527 group, named after the section of the IRS code that governs such groups. Among its recent donors has been the Campaign to Defend America, a Democratic-leaning group that has been running anti-McCain ads. The group gave Campaign Money Watch $50,000 earlier this year, according to Internal Revenue Service records." Campaign to Defend America was begun by MoveOn's co-founder Wes Boyd and lobbyist Tom Matzzie.

Campaign Money Watch describes itself as "a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group." Its press release announcing its complaint and ads can be found here.

Campaign Money Watch is a project of Public Campaign Action Fund which describes itself as "a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving America’s campaign finance laws. We help enact, defend, and promote Clean Elections-style public financing in states around the country like Arizona and Maine, and advocate for similar legislation for all federal elections. ...  With its pro-reform Campaign Money Watch project, the organization engages voters in hotly contested elections around the country to educate them about the impact of big money from special interests on the policy-making process. Since its founding in 1997, Public Campaign Action Fund has brought activists to the fight for comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s campaign finance laws and to make opposing reform a political liability for elected officials." 

Contact Info

 * Public Campaign Action Fund
 * 1320 19th St, NW Suite #M-1 | Washington, DC 20036
 * Email: info AT pcactionfund.org
 * Phone 202.293.0222