The Vote Hope PAC and its website votehope2008.com was started by San Francisco lawyer and activist Steve Philipps, his wife Susan Sandler and other activists in the Bay Area.
The group plans to raise about $3 million for a statewide vote-by-mail effort in support of Barack Obama particularly among groups with low voting turnout like young people and minorities. The plan is not only to swing California toward Barack but to increase the state's influence in the early voting process.
California voters can register their votes for Barack at:
http://votehope2008.com/addmyvote.php
Group takes early hit
I was alerted by Justin Cole of Media Matters that the mud started flying toward Vote Hope ride out of the starting gates.
Amy Robach of MSNBC compared the political action committee to the "swift-boat" groups of the last presidential election, even though Vote Hope's effort is not geared toward negative campaigning. Vote Hope and Media Matters both printed articles clarifying the situation.
Obama spokesperson Bill Burton responding to the report said "it is our hope that anyone who supports Obama does so directly through the campaign and not an outside group."
However, wealthy individuals and groups that have maxed out on direct contributions to Obama for America may be looking for other independent committees like Vote Hope to support their candidate.
Individuals may contribute up to $5,000 to a PAC outside of their direct contributions to the Obama campaign. Individuals may also spend their own money without limit in supporting a candidate independently.
Wealthy individuals are known to have mounted expensive independent television ad campaigns in support of political candidates.
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