Funding law may help bid Pending bill would let money go to Hutchison's possible run for governor
By CLAY ROBISON Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has been considering a challenge to Gov. Rick Perry in 2006, will get a $6.7 million campaign boost if a little-noticed provision tucked into a mammoth spending bill by congressional negotiators becomes law. The provision, added to a section funding the Federal Election Commission, would reverse an FEC interpretation that barred members of Congress from transferring federal campaign funds to a state race. The new language, expected to remain intact after Congress completes work on the bill, would allow Hutchison to spend $6.7 million she has raised for a possible Senate re-election campaign on a gubernatorial race instead. Hutchison serves on a Senate appropriations subcommittee with oversight of the FEC, but her spokesman Dave Beckwith said she wasn't involved in negotiations over the spending measure. "No one in our office knew anything about it," he said Wednesday. Beckwith said Hutchison hasn't decided yet on her 2006 plans. Her Senate term expires that year, and she is being encouraged by some Texas Republicans to challenge Perry in the GOP primary. "She has not decided what she's going to do. She hasn't ruled anything out," Beckwith said. Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn also is believed to be considering a primary race against Perry. Beckwith said about a dozen members of Congress who are eyeing races for state offices could benefit from the change in the law, which restores what was allowed before a campaign finance overhaul in 2002. According to the BNA Report, a newsletter that tracks regulatory issues in Washington, the change was recommended by the FEC. A call to the FEC's information division Wednesday afternoon was answered by a recording that said the office was closed, apparently for the Thanksgiving holiday. "We're not worried about what other people may or may not be doing. We'll deal with politics in the future," said Luis Saenz, director of Perry's political committee. But Saenz called the change a closed-door effort by members of both major parties to "undermine" campaign finance reforms for their own benefit. As of July 1, the governor reported raising about $5 million for his re-election campaign. Perry will be unable to raise money while the Legislature is in session during the first five months of next year because of a restriction in state law. That restriction doesn't apply to Hutchison, a federal officeholder. The Federal Election Commission had ruled that the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, enacted by Congress in 2002, prohibited retiring members of Congress from transferring leftover federal campaign funds to a state campaign. The new provision, approved by House and Senate negotiators, would allow those funds to be used in state and local races, subject to provisions in state law. Texas law would allow Hutchison to use the money to run for governor. The new language in the federal appropriations bill also would restore the pre-2002 allowance for federal campaign dollars to be used for any other "lawful purpose," subject to restrictions on the conversion of campaign funds to personal use. Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, a nonpartisan organization that follows campaign finance issues, said he was concerned that the law was changed without any public notice. "This is not the way to legislate campaign finance changes," he said. Final approval of the $388 billion domestic spending bill was delayed after senators discovered a provision that would have let congressional appropriators examine Americans' income tax returns. House leaders said the income tax provision had been added by mistake, and the Senate removed it. Final House action on the bill has been delayed until Dec. 6. When Hutchison was state treasurer, she used state campaign funds to help finance her first election to the U.S. Senate in 1993. Later that year, the FEC banned the transfer of money from state campaigns to races for the U.S. Senate or the U.S. House. Then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn couldn't use leftover state political funds to directly finance his successful race for the U.S. Senate in 2002. But he donated $3.1 million from his state campaign fund to a national Republican committee. Democratic opponent Ron Kirk claimed the money was later used by the GOP to finance attack ads against him.
