RNC Chairman Mike Duncan just finished a blogger conference call, and he told us that they are filing two lawsuits in Federal Courts (one in DC and one in Louisiana) to challenge the application of the McCain-Feingold restrictions on "soft money" contributions. The Louisiana case is connected to the race to unseat Rep. William Jefferson on December 6th, so they are confident that the case in that state will move quickly. The DC case is a little broader, as the committee has several objectives. First, they want to be able to open accounts to help with next year's gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey (which they currently can't). Second, they want to be able to help with state level politics during the upcoming re-districting process (they want to help ensure the election of Republican state legislators to help draw the district lines, as well as aid in the litigation process when the Dems draw bad lines). Third, they want to be able to advocate for issues in state-level politics.
This is going to be an interesting case, as they are not challenging the constitutionality of McCain-Feingold. Instead, they are challenging the application of the law, claiming that national party money cannot really be counted as outside "soft money" contributions (which it currently is when the national party gets involved in a state-level race).
