Washington Wrap

Dotty Lynch, Douglas Kiker, Beth Lester and Clothilde Ewing of the CBS News Political Unit have the latest from the nation's capital.

Wednesday's Headlines

* All Things Kerry

* Bush-Cheney to Cut Back on Ad Spending

* FEC To Decide the Fate of 527 Groups

* Veep Watch: Edwards For President or Vice President?

* Senate Races: Club for Growth Politics

Kerry Raises Cash, and Some Eyebrows: Halfway through his college campus tour/fundraiser extravaganza week, John Kerry is raising lots of money and some questions along the way.

The Boston Globe reports renewed questions about how Kerry earned his first Purple Heart in Vietnam are surfacing on "the Internet and talk radio." In preparation for an upcoming book on Kerry, the Globe reviewed his war record and "found that the young Navy officer acted heroically under fire, in one case saving the life of an Army lieutenant. But the examination also found that Kerry's commanding officer at the time questioned Kerry's first Purple Heart, which he earned for a wound received just two weeks after arriving in Vietnam."

Kerry, who received three Purple Hearts for his service, refused to discuss any of his medals with the Globe but a spokesman did note that "the Navy concluded that Kerry deserved the Purple Heart." The Globe speculates that some of the disagreement about Kerry's service may come from veterans who resented Kerry's involvement with Vietnam Veterans Against the War when he came home.

With Kerry's Vietnam service a major part of his campaign, the questions are unlikely to stop.

If Kerry is dividing some veterans, he is having no trouble unifying Democratic fundraisers. During lunch in Providence, R.I., on Tuesday, Kerry attended a "$500-$2,000 per person fund-raiser that brought in over $1 million - continuing his fund-raising prowess from last week with almost $5 million in D.C. and Chicago," reports CBS News' Steve Chaggaris.

Tuesday night, Kerry attended another fundraiser in Boston, that "netted him over $4 million. He was joined by his wife Teresa, his daughter Vanessa, Massachusetts native Ben Affleck, Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills and Nash (who soloed a few CSN favorites such as "Silver Dollar" and "Southern Cross"), Sen. Edward Kennedy and the rest of the state's Congressional delegation, Boston Mayor Tom Menino and DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe."

Kerry's fundraising trip will continue throughout the week. On Wednesday, he travels to New York City. He will campaign with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. Charlie Rangel at the City College of New York in Harlem before holding two fund-raisers: a gala at the Sheraton New York that's expected to bring in more than $4 million and a lower-dollar event for young professionals at Crobar.

On Thursday he attends a fund-raising breakfast for the DNC in New York before holding his own fund-raiser in East Rutherford, N.J. Friday, he'll be joined by Jon Bon Jovi and former footballer Franco Harris at the University of Pittsburgh before raking in more money in the Steel City and in Philadelphia. Next week, Kerry holds fund-raisers in Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans and Houston.

Bush Scales Back Ad Spending: The Los Angeles Times reports that, "Despite its unprecedented fundraising success, President Bush's reelection team is scaling back its massive level of television advertising, according to senior Republicans familiar with the campaign's planning."

The Times quotes a GOP strategist as saying the campaign will reduce by 30 percent the ads its running in the 18 key battleground states where its been on air.

"Republicans say that the ad reduction was planned all along and that the commercials succeeded in planting doubts about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry. And they say that although Bush's overall advertising budget will shrink, more of the ads that air will criticize Kerry," the paper reports.

The Times says its analysis has found that of the estimated $40 million Bush-Cheney has spent on ads thus far, it's split roughly half-and-half between spots touting the president's record and those criticizing Kerry.

Bush-Cheney chief strategist Matthew Dowd tells the L.A. Times that some analysts had an unrealistic expectation of how much the president's ads might affect the race. "There was a false assumption … that you would all of a sudden change everything with a series of ads."

"Dowd said the ads helped Bush rebound from polls in February and early March that showed him trailing Kerry by an average of about of 5 or 6 percentage points. He also said the ads started to imprint two negative impressions about Kerry — that he would raise taxes as president and that he flip-flops on key issues, such as the war with Iraq."

Meantime, the AP reports that focus groups of undecided union voters conducted for the AFL-CIO show that Democrat John Kerry "doesn't warm anybody up, while President Bush is seen as likable and strong." According to the results, "Organized labor must help Kerry create an emotional bond if fence-sitting members are to vote for him in November."

The AFL-CIO's study found: "Kerry's reputation for aloofness remains a hurdle for the presumptive Democratic nominee - even among his party's core constituencies. And despite the acidity labor leaders direct toward Bush and his policies, the president still appeals to a segment of union members, namely the Reagan Democrats. Bush was viewed as a likable and strong, 'with a nice family and good moral values,' according to a memo detailing the findings of undecided and independent union voters."

Union voters, of course, are a pivotal voting bloc. The AP reports that in 2000, Bush won 37 percent of union household voters to Al Gore's 59 percent, according to exit polls. Those voters made up 26 percent of the electorate

527s In the Spotlight: Snowed under by more than 140,000 e-mails and 11,000 faxes, the FEC will begin hearings on Wednesday to look at whether it should do anything to regulate the 527 groups and other nonprofit advocacy organizations that are spending millions of dollars on advertising to influence elections. The commission has been inundated with calls from people who believe groups "are engaging in a blatant end run around the campaign finance laws," but also from people who believe ruling against the group will erode their 1st Amendment rights, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Many of the messages sent to the FEC were the result of organized campaigns by groups who have a stake in the hearings outcome. For example, the Bush campaign takes credit for 66,000 e-mails that urged the FEC "to move forward quickly with its rulemaking." The League of Women Voters, the Bull Moose Republicans and the Campaign Legal Center, a campaign finance watchdog group, also said they had organized e-mail campaigns supporting stricter rules for independent groups, reports the Times.

More than 30 people are scheduled to speak on the issue on Wednesday and Thursday and the six-member bipartisan commission is to vote on the matter May 13.

Let the Edwards Campaign Continue: Although John Edwards is no longer a candidate for president his supporters are "executing a behind-the-scenes plan to push North Carolina's favorite son to victory Saturday in the state's presidential caucus and, they hope, bolster his vice-presidential prospects," reports The Hill.

Though Edwards himself has been coy at best about his interest in the No. 2 spot, it seems his loyalists are much more upfront in their desires. Explains Betsy Wells, the Democratic Party chairwoman in Cleveland County, "It's a grassroots effort from North Carolinians, mainly from people who worked so hard on his campaign … A lot of people think that Kerry might be persuaded to make John either vice president or attorney general. This would be a great way to do it."

Edwards supporters "stress that they do not want to embarrass Kerry in any way and that come November they will work feverishly to defeat President Bush." But if Edwards could win his home state caucus, to be held this Saturday, his backers think, "In addition to bolstering Edwards's vice-presidential prospects, a home-state victory would be a way to thank the Iowa runner-up for a well-fought campaign, say Edwards loyalists. They note that Vermont went for native son Howard Dean even after the nomination was effectively decided."

Members of Edwards' formal campaign tell The Hill that there is no coordination between the senator and the home-state drive. Regardless, the effort may be working. Says Ted Arrington, a professor at UNC-Charlotte, "If I were in a predictive mood, I'd say Edwards is going to win."

Of course, one might wonder whether beating Kerry in the primary is the best way to warm up the presumptive nominee.

Club for Growth back in South Dakota: There was little doubt that this year's elections would be hard fought and in some cases, even nasty, but seven months shy of Election Day, there are already some surprises in South Dakota and Pennsylvania. On Wednesday night, the Club for Growth ran the first negative ad of South Dakota's 2004 election, an attack on Sen. Tom Daschle.

The ad focuses on what Club for Growth claims is Daschle's support of the estate tax, saying, "You're born. You go to school. You work hard. You raise a family. You pay your taxes. And when you die, the IRS can tax you again. Taking as much as 55 percent of everything you've saved for your children. It's called the death tax and it's wrong. Senator Tom Daschle wants to keep the death tax. Isn't a lifetime of taxes enough?"

Daschle's deputy campaign manager, Dan Pfeiffer, feels otherwise and in a challenge to the new ad, points out that in actuality Daschle voted to eliminate the estate tax for all South Dakota family businesses and farms, and that he voted to repeal the estate tax for all but five South Dakota Estates.

Incidentally, in 2002, Club for Growth members were the fourth largest group of contributors to Daschle's now opponent, Rep. John Thune, who lost a close election to Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson.

Club for Growth spent $25,000 on the buy and the ad started running Tuesday night on cable stations in South Dakota and will continue to run for the next 15 days.

Meanwhile, the Club for Growth is getting some competition in Pennsylvania, where it has run a $2 million ad campaign against moderate Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, who is facing a stiff primary challenge from conservative Pat Toomey. George Soros, the man who has donated millions of dollars to help defeat President Bush, has weighed in for Specter.

According to the AP, Soros made a $50,000 contribution to "The Main Street Individual Fund," a liberal Republican organization that supports Specter. The Fund says its opponent is not only Specter's conservative challenger, but also the Club For Growth.

Quote of the Day: "This campaign will give the people of Oregon an opportunity to help chart the direction of the Democratic Party on Iraq." -- Dennis Kucinich, explaining why he plans to spend 27 days campaigning in Oregon before the May 18 primary (AP)