As a wide array of independent groups ramp up their efforts for and against presidential candidates taking part in the Iowa caucuses, a band of self-described free-speech advocates is seeking to make it easier for citizens to fund such political endeavors using large donations.

The new organization, SpeechNow.org, is asking the Federal Election Commission for permission to accept donations of more than $5,000 a person, which is the current limit for federal political action committees. The group says it wants to use the funds to take out political advertising in support of candidates who favor less campaign finance regulation and in opposition to those who favor tighter fund-raising rules.

“Everyone agrees that individuals can spend as much as they want to influence elections. Why can’t two of us get together and pool our resources?” the president of SpeechNow.org, David Keating, said. “It doesn’t make sense for the FEC to say, ‘No.’ But it’s not clear they’ll say, ‘Yes.'”

The FEC has long asserted the authority to regulate committees whose “major purpose” is advocating for or against political candidates. Yet, in a letter to the commission, SpeechNow.org flatly stated that “its mission and major purpose is to advocate the election of candidates.”

Several specialists in campaign finance law said the group’s strategy seemed intended to get a negative ruling from the FEC and then to pursue a court fight over the limits of the commission’s authority.

“These folks apparently want to test these theories,” one attorney well versed in the field, Jan Baran, said yesterday. “They’ve conceded everything that needs to be established to find them to be a political committee” subject to regulation, a proponent of strict FEC action, Paul Ryan of the Campaign Legal Center, said. “There’s a possibility these individuals are trying to tee up a lawsuit but I don’t know that for a fact.”

A former FEC chairman who is serving as an attorney for SpeechNow.org, Bradley Smith, said the group is hoping the commission will give the go-ahead. “There’s been kind of a presumption that some of these things people can’t do, but the FEC hasn’t ever clearly ruled on these things. We think the presumption is incorrect,” he said. Mr. Smith declined to comment for this article about what the group will do if it is turned down by the FEC. In addition to Mr. Keating, the executive director of the Club for Growth, SpeechNow.org’s founders include the head of the Cato Institute, Edward Crane III, and the leader of a California anti-tax group, Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

The group’s legal arguments rest on the notion that the main justification for limiting campaign donations, namely the prevention of corruption, is not at issue when a group of private individuals bands together to support or oppose political candidates, provided there is no coordination with candidates. Mr. Keating said the group planned to disclose its donors and spending through the existing FEC system for recording independent expenditures.

Other independent groups are wading into the presidential race as the Iowa caucuses near. A traditional political action committee, Emily’s List, is mounting a Web-oriented campaign to get women voters to the caucuses. FEC filings show the group has spent about $54,000 with Google and Yahoo in recent weeks for banner ads supporting Senator Clinton. A spokeswoman for the group, Ramona Oliver, said the ads are running on political news sites as well as other sites with heavily female audiences, such as Cooks.com. She said the group is able to target the ads to Iowa users by sending them only to so-called IP addresses linked to that state.

A political action committee connected with the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees is rolling out a new television ad backing Mrs. Clinton as a candidate “with the strength and experience to create real change.” About $31,000 was been spent on airtime earlier this week, an FEC report shows. Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton is under attack from outside groups on both the right and the left. Two Virginia-based political groups, Life and Liberty PAC and Right-March.com, have spent nearly $400,000 in recent months on mailings and phone calls opposing her. A spokesman for a liberal group, Democratic Courage, said yesterday its television ad attacking Mrs. Clinton for caving in to Mayor Giuliani on a proposal for so-called baby bonds will go up on cable in Iowa tomorrow. The spokesman, Glenn Hurowitz, declined to say how much the group planned to spend.