Daschle

A lot of Daschle talk today.  First off, from today's edition of Hotline:

DASCHLE: What's Tom Up To? Should We Start Wondering About IA And NH?

     Ex-Senate Dem leader Tom Daschle's new PAC, New Leadership for America, will help him maintain his post-Hill influence in politics, according to advisers. Through DASHPAC and on his own, Daschle has donated/helped to raise more than $500K for Dems across the country, including large donations to the WV and ND Dem parties. But Daschle has no plans to run for office anytime soon. DASHPAC is being shuttered; the new PAC is being built on top of Daschle's old campaign committee, but it's being given a new coat of a paint, a new name, and a new, multi-candidate purpose and FEC designation. Daschle political adviser/ex-manager Steve Hildebrand: "The first and primary purpose for this new PAC is to aggressively help progressive candidates run for public office. To contribute to them, to foster their candidacy, to encourage support from others" (Hotline reporting). Daschle is "in the process of lining up a series of political travel on behalf of Democratic candidates around the country." Last week, Daschle helped WV Sen. Robert Byrd with a $100k fundraiser and "a direct mail pitch." Because Daschle is "no longer a federal officeholder, Daschle is incorporating a nonfederal account within the PAC" (i.e. a 527). That account will be allowed to accept unlimited donations, although Daschle plans on capping such donations at $25,000 a year per individual" (Kane, Roll Call, 9/19).

Today's Roll Call is noting him too:

Seeking to re-establish himself as a political force, former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) is forming a new political action committee, raising money for his former colleagues and trying to pump new life into his state’s Democratic Party.

Daschle transferred more than $500,000 in leftover funds from his unsuccessful 2004 re-election bid into the new committee and launched the New Leadership for America PAC at a retreat for potential new Democratic candidates in the Black Hills of South Dakota held Sept. 9-11.

The PAC will become Daschle’s primary political vehicle as he seeks to maintain a level of political relevancy beyond that of other Congressional leaders who have left office in recent years.

...

Earlier this summer Daschle penned a direct-mail piece for Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who may face one of the toughest re-elections in 2006. The piece yielded $190,000 for Conrad’s campaign.

And Daschle is in the process of lining up a series of political travel on behalf of Democratic candidates around the country.

The new political activity is not being viewed as any sort of a potential springboard for Daschle to return to electoral politics, as his friends and former aides say he has settled fairly happily into a post-Senate career combining a mix of private-sector jobs as well an academic component. Daschle is working with a longtime supporter, Leo Hindery, in a New York investment outfit focusing on mid-size media companies. In addition, he has set up shop in the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm Alston and Bird, where he is not lobbying but instead advising clients.

...

New Leadership for America is taking over where Daschle’s old committee, DASHPAC, is leaving off. DASHPAC, with just $11,000 in its coffers on July 31, will officially terminate in the next few weeks, leaving Daschle just with New Leadership.