Bowdoin students proved during the 2004 election that they don't shy away from controversy?and they didn't shy away last night as a good number of students attended Benjamin Ginsberg's lecture, "Red States, Blue States, and Swift Boat Vets: An Inside Look at the 2004 Election."
Benjamin Ginsberg resigned as national counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign amid a storm of controversy surrounding his connections to the advocacy organization Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
When asked by the Orient what he would say to students who may be turned away from politics by negativity in campaigns, Ginsberg replied that students should consider that "these are the people who are going to be running your government...negativity is a part of politics, and sometimes it helps get your candidate elected."
Prior to the 2004 election, Ginsberg served as national counsel to Bush-Cheney campaign in 2000, and played a central role in the Florida recount in the 2000 election. Among other things, he also currently represents the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and the National Congressional Committee.
The talk focused on George W. Bush's successful re-election campaign.
"More than anything else," Ginsberg said, campaign advisors for Bush "realized it was a divided city."
Ginsberg cited the turnout of Republican voters as the key factor in raising the margin of victory for President Bush from 2000 to 2004 by three percent. Campaign advisors "painstakingly built a machine with new tools that paid off," Ginsberg said. Republicans also ran "a far more efficient campaign."
Ginsberg began and ended his lecture by encouraging young people to get involved in political campaigns. He noted how easy it is to get involved, and that campaigns are "a great experience in democracy and how our country works."
"Campaigns need your energy and your ideas," he said.
Ginsberg then recounted his experience in the 2000 and 2004 elections.
"You need to look to 2000 to understand 2004," he said. He recounted the night of the 2000 election, describing it as a "see-saw," as Florida was called for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, then later recanted.
"The Florida recount began as wild a ride as you can imagine," Ginsberg said. After George Bush was officially declared president, "the country was bitterly divided, and that's understandable. That bitter division characterized the four years leading up to the 2004 election."
Ginsberg cited the election results of 2000 as the key in the political strategy that Bush-Cheney campaign advisors created. Goals for the 2004 election included, among other things, "increasing the vote totals and changing the basic makeup of the electorate. They began experimenting right away."
Ginsberg also recounted his involvement with the controversial advocacy group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and his resignation in August 2004 as national counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign. Ginsberg said he "was approached by decorated Vietnam veterans," who wanted legal advice on forming and conducting a 527 group. These groups, named after the federal provision that allows them to be tax-exempt and accept unlimited donations, were active on behalf of both the Democratic and Republican parties during the 2004 presidential election.
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "thought that their views should be heard in the debate on the election," Ginsberg said. "I have never been so moved to get involved in a political group...The ads were truly powerful."
The group caused intense controversy in August 2004 when it aired television ads accusing John Kerry of lying about his war records. The ads focused both on Kerry's service record in Vietnam and on his 1971 Senate testimony on the war.
The Kerry campaign responded by filing a complaint with the Federal Election Committee arguing that the group coordinated with the Bush campaign, an allegation the Bush campaign denied.
Ginsberg provided legal advice to Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth at the same time that he was acting as national counsel for the Bush-Cheney campaign.
"I was essentially doing what my Democratic counterparts were doing" in serving as counsel to a 527 group while at the same time advising a political campaign. "There was nothing illegal."
When Ginsberg discovered that the media was breaking the story that he had served as counsel to both Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth and the Bush-Cheney campaign, he resigned.
"I was truly mortified that I had become the story," Ginsberg said in his lecture last night, "[I was] the lawyer that's supposed to be in the background."
After his resignation, Ginsberg said that he realized that he was "liberated to go out and help the 527s." He went on to discuss Progress for America, another pro-Bush 527 group that aired the "Ashley Ad" featuring a young girl whose mother died in the September 11th terrorist attacks. Ginsberg spoke of the power of the ad, and that he heard Democrats say that they "thought the Ashley ad won Ohio for the President."
"Progress for America and Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth stepped up to serve a balanced viewpoint" in the campaigns for the presidency, Ginsberg said.