Negative Ads

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</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>&nbsp;this category includes oppositional research; now includes online ads</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>see NEG ATTACK AD 2 5/18</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>see also attack ads (older?)
</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>needs dev?</b></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">tool</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/">https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5/4/18</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">t recent filings, current candidates running in House and Senate races nationwide have raised more than&nbsp;<b open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">$1 billion</b>&nbsp;in the 2018 cycle with six months still left to go.<br open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" /><br open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" />157 candidates running for the U.S. Senate have raised an average of&nbsp;<b open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">$2.3 million</b>while&nbsp;1519 candidates running for the House of Representatives have raised an average of just under&nbsp;<b open="Open" sans="Sans" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">$446 thousand</b>.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ads, heat map</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font style=""><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/ad-data/" style="">https://www.opensecrets.org/ad-data/</a></font></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5/18</font></div><div><h1 class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></h1><div><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-daisy-ad-changed-everything-about-political-advertising-180958741/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-daisy-ad-changed-everything-about-political-advertising-180958741/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On&nbsp;September 7, 1964, a 60-second TV ad changed American politics forever. A 3-year-old girl in a simple dress counted as she plucked&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1964/peace-little-girl-daisy" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">daisy petals</a>&nbsp;in a sun-dappled field. Her words were supplanted by a mission-control countdown followed by a massive nuclear blast in a classic mushroom shape. The message was clear if only implicit: Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was a genocidal maniac who threatened the world’s future. Two months later, President Lyndon Johnson won easily, and the emotional political attack ad—visceral, terrifying, and risky—was made.</font></div><div class="associated-container" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h3 class="associated-header related-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.525em; margin-bottom: 0.75em; padding-top: 0.375em; padding-bottom: 0.375em; font-weight: normal; text-transform: uppercase; border-top: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179); clear: both; width: 220px; float: left; margin-right: 32px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED CONTENT</font></h3><ul class="associated related-list last" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0em 32px 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.5em; clear: both; width: 220px; float: left; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(179, 179, 179);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.75em; list-style: none;"><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/we-can-thank-harry-truman-tv-politics-180961642/" class="associated-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: 1.54286em; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0.75em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">We Can Thank Harry Truman for TV Politics</font></a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0em; list-style: none;"><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/russian-burger-campaign-isnt-first-mix-art-advertising-180960579/" class="associated-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: 1.54286em; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-top: 0.75em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Russian Burger King Campaign Isn't the First to Mix Art and Advertising</font></a></li></ul></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em 0px; hyphens: none;" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em 0px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Half a century later, we live in the world of negative political advertising that Daisy Girl pioneered, but there are some curious aspects to the story. First, though it is a famous ad, Daisy Girl, as the ad is known, only ran once. Secondly, it didn’t even mention Goldwater’s name. And finally, by the time the ad ran, Goldwater’s chances against LBJ were slim, even though the ad is often falsely credited with assuring the win. And there were two dozen other ads from LBJ’s camp—humorous, informative, dark, and neurotic. Daisy became the iconic spot of its era not because it was the first Johnson ran in 1964; we remember it primarily because of its brilliant, innovative approach to negative advertising.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em 0px; hyphens: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">....</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/05/14/unprecedented-outside-spending-floods-wisconsin-attack-us-senator-tammy-baldwin">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/05/14/unprecedented-outside-spending-floods-wisconsin-attack-us-senator-tammy-baldwin</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>2018 campaign cash is already flooding into races across the country. But nowhere is more awash in money than Wisconsin, where Tammy Baldwin’s U.S. Senate race&nbsp;<a href="http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/unprecedented-outside-spending-hits-tammy-baldwin-boosts-kevin-nicholson-in/article_b57981aa-1f25-5d9c-95d9-1ec727e70d9c.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">has already seen</a>&nbsp;more than twice the amount of the next closest contest.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The spending is “unprecedented”</b>&nbsp;for a U.S. Senate campaign at this stage, says Andrew Mayersohn, a researcher for the Center for Responsive Politics.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As of April 23, 2018, more than $10 million had been spent by conservative groups buying ads opposing Baldwin or supporting one of her two main Republican rivals, management consultant Kevin Nicholson and longtime ALEC legislator and State Senator Leah Vukmir.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In contrast,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/races/outside-spending?cycle=2018&id=WIS1&spec=N" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">just over $1 million</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;has been spent supporting Baldwin or attacking her opponents. The PACs and dark money “issue ad” groups trying to unseat Baldwin are connected to some of the most powerful right-wing donors in the country, including Richard Uihlein, Robert Mercer and the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These billionaire backers of the far right are working hard to take down Tammy Baldwin, a pro-labor, pro-environment, pro-universal health care progressive. Below, the Center for Media and Democracy details some of the biggest spenders in the race.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RICHARD UIHLEIN’S AMERICA’S PAC AND RESTORATION PAC</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The biggest outside spender in the Wisconsin senate race to date is industrial supply magnate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Richard_Uihlein" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Richard Uihlein</a>, owner of the shipping supply firm Uihlein Corp. Uihlein single-handedly turned little-known veteran Kevin Nicholson into a major threat to Baldwin’s seat. Uihlein’s “Restoration PAC,” a federal Super PAC, has spent $541,374 against Baldwin and $2,502,268 supporting Nicholson. Uihlein has bankrolled Restoration PAC with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2018&cmte=C00571588" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">$4,225,000</a>&nbsp;as of February 2018.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His “America’s PAC” has spent $2,621,565 supporting Nicholson, as well as $703,500 opposing Baldwin. Between September 2017 and February 2018, Uihlein has given America’s PAC&nbsp;<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2018&cmte=C00559906" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">$2.65 million</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But all that money doesn’t translate into common sense. In an embarrassing gaffe, America’s PAC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Radio-ad-comparing-Nicholson-to-Missouri-governor-12875264.php" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">sent a radio ad to 20 Wisconsin stations</a>&nbsp;favorably comparing Nicholson with embattled Missouri Governor Eric Greitens. Greitens is facing a criminal trial for initiating an affair with his hairdresser by strapping her arms to exercise hoops, blindfolding her, stripping her and taking a photo to make sure that she wouldn’t tell anyone. What do Greitens and Nicholson have in common? Both are veterans and both were Democrats who are now running for office on the Republican line.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This isn’t the first time that America’s PAC ads have gone awry. In 2014, America’s PAC sponsored ads in Ohio, which observers such as the Black Commentator news site&nbsp;<a href="http://blackcommentator.com/105/105_cover.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">described</a>&nbsp;as “highly obnoxious” for their attempt to portray Democrats as destroying African-American communities through support for pro-choice policies. In 2006,&nbsp;<a href="http://articles.southbendtribune.com/2006-10-03/news/26964263_1_ads-black-voters-rate-among-black-women" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">radio ads</a>&nbsp;prepared by America’s PAC gave “the clear message that black voters need to join the Republican cause if they want to enjoy the same success as whites.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America’s PAC is attacking Baldwin for the death of several veterans at a Veterans Administration (VA) hospital because she allegedly ignored a whistleblower’s warning about “overmedicated veterans.” Politifact&nbsp;<a href="http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2017/may/05/americas-pac/super-pac-attack-blaming-tammy-baldwin-deaths-3-ve/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">rated this</a>&nbsp;claim “False” and reported that the whistleblower’s warning could not be tied to the three deaths in question.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ROBERT MERCER BEHIND JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC</font></span></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The John Bolton Super PAC, run by the same John Bolton who is now the National Security Advisor of the United States, has spent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/indexpend.php?cmte=C00542464&cycle=2018&txt=" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">$560,570</a>supporting Nicholson. The PAC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/19/bolton-pac-launches-new-ad-to-benefit-nicholson-fo/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">plans to</a>&nbsp;spend $1 million to help Nicholson defeat Vukmir in the primary.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Super PAC has been largely funded by hedge fund manager&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Robert_Mercer" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Robert Mercer</a>, one of the “blow it all up” billionaire backers behind Trump and one of the first investors in the controversial “psy-ops” organization&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Cambridge_Analytica" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Cambridge Analytica</a>. Good governance groups Democracy 21 and Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) filed a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.democracy21.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/CREW-D21-Cambridge-Analytica-Complaint.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">complaint</a>&nbsp;against the John Bolton Super PAC in March 2018, claiming that the PAC’s work with Cambridge Analytica and SCL Industries violated election laws prohibiting foreign nationals from “directly or indirectly” participating in American political campaigns.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">KOCH FRONT GROUP: CONCERNED VETERANS FOR AMERICA</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The billionaire&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch_Brothers" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Koch brothers</a>&nbsp;are the also donating heavily to an array of PACs attacking Baldwin. Concerned Veterans for America (CVA)</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;is a Koch front group based in Arlington, Virginia. CVA purports to be a grassroots group of vets who want to reform the VA. But the phony front group is the only known “veterans” group pushing for the privatization of the of the VA, which provides comprehensive health care services to the nation’s nine million veterans. After being fired via Twitter in March, Trump’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin warned in an op-ed in the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/opinion/shulkin-veterans-affairs-privatization.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;that the VA is entangled in a “brutal power struggle” over privatization.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As of March 8, 2018, CVA had spent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wpr.org/concerned-veterans-america-drops-another-1-6m-baldwin" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">$3.1 million</a>&nbsp;against Baldwin, including ads on the same false claims made by America’s PAC that she was responsible for deaths at a VA hospital. In addition, CVA’s Executive Director Dan Caldwell flew to Wisconsin to participate as a panelist in the first GOP primary debate between Vukmir and Nicholson. The debate was sponsored by none other than the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/26/kevin-nicholson-leah-vukmir-clash-first-republican-u-s-senate-debate/556425002/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Kochs’ astroturf organization, Americans for Prosperity.</a>&nbsp;The candidates predictably embraced every Koch policy as they vied for the billionaires’ endorsement and money, but the debate did allow Vukmir to savage Nicholson as a former Democrat.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">KOCH’S FREEDOM PARTNERS</font></span></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Freedom_Partners" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Freedom Partners</a>&nbsp;is the Kochs’ non-profit 501(c)(6) dark money “trade group” funded by the Kochs and staffed with Koch operatives. As of April 28, 2018, Freedom Partners has spent more than $1.6 million&nbsp;<a href="https://freedompartners.org/press/wisconsin-deserves-better-freedom-partners-launches-1-6-million-ad-campaign-calling-senator-baldwin-protecting-rigged-system/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">on attack ads</a>&nbsp;accusing Baldwin of “rigging the system” by voting for higher taxes (which paid for programs such as the Affordable Care Act).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After a seemingly grassroots Tea Party uprising against the 2010 Affordable Care Act, it was later revealed that the Kochs played a major role bankrolling the many right-wing groups involved. When asked about why the Kochs were campaigning against health care, Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips told the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/us/politics/koch-group-seeks-lasting-voice-for-small-government.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em></a>&nbsp;that the plan was to discredit the government (or as he put it, the “social welfare boondoggle”) in preparation for the fight over climate change.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Stay tuned, this interesting race is likely to get a lot more interesting. Leah Vukmir won the GOP straw poll at the Republican state convention this weekend with 72 percent of the vote. This is after Vukmir began&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/baldwin-challenger-vukmir-puts-team-terrorist" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">tweeting out photos</a>&nbsp;of Baldwin and Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the planner of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, calling them<b>“Team Terrorist.”</b>&nbsp;The crude move, allegedly protesting Baldwin’s silence on the Gina Haspel CIA nomination, was denounced as an “irresponsible campaign blunder” by far-right news outlets and “embarrassing” by Nicholson. Baldwin had been waiting to meet with Haspel, who had cancelled a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gop-senate-candidate-says-tammy-baldwin-is-on-team-terrorists-because-of-her-position-on-trump-cia-pick_us_5af35edce4b0859d11d0159d" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">scheduled meeting.</a></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/05/tv-ads-in-midterms-up-nearly-90-percent-fueled-by-nondisclosing-groups">https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/05/tv-ads-in-midterms-up-nearly-90-percent-fueled-by-nondisclosing-groups</a>/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter-tv-ads-in-midterms-051018&utm_source=CRP+Mail+List&utm_campaign=021db55538-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_05_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9df8578d78-021db55538-210710609

P<span style="font-weight: 400;">olitical TV ad buys are up nearly 90 percent over the same period during the last midterm election in 2014, according to <a href="http://mediaproject.wesleyan.edu/releases/may-2018/" target="blank" rel="noopener">a report</a> published Monday by <a href="http://mediaproject.wesleyan.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Wesleyan Media Project</a> in partnership with <a href="http://opensecrets.org">the Center for Responsive Politics</a>.</span>

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A majority of the ads bought by

outside groups targeting House and Senate races were run by “dark money”

groups, which don’t disclose any of their donors, much of which was

never reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/races/special-elections" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Special elections</a>

and contested primaries were the main drivers of the increase in TV

ads, according to the study, which analyzed ad buys from January 2017

through May 3, 2018.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">About $65 million was spent on

roughly 150,000 ads in House and Senate special elections this cycle in

Montana, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Alabama. </span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“So far, the 2018 cycle suggests that

TV advertising is alive and well as a campaign tactic, as special

elections and hotly contested primaries have driven TV ad totals well

above the 2014 benchmark for this same time period,” Erika Franklin

Fowler, co-director of the <a href="http://mediaproject.wesleyan.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wesleyan Media Project</a>, said.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Overall, outside groups have funded about 43 percent of TV ads airing in Senate races and a third of those in House races.</span></font></p>

<h2 class="tablepress-table-name tablepress-table-name-id-117"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Outside Group Donor Disclosure in House Races</font></h2>

<table id="tablepress-117" class="tablepress tablepress-id-117"><thead><tr class="row-1 odd"><th class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Outside Group</font></th><th class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ads Airings</font></th><th class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Est. Cost (in Millions)</font></th><th class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Percent of Ads</font></th></tr></thead><tbody class="row-hover"><tr class="row-2 even"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Full</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6,671</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$3.2</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12.1%</font></td></tr><tr class="row-3 odd"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Partial</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11,081</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$5.5</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">20.2%</font></td></tr><tr class="row-4 even"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">None</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">37,232</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$12.8</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">67.7%</font></td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2 class="tablepress-table-name tablepress-table-name-id-118"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Outside Group Donor Disclosure in Senate Races</font></h2>

<table id="tablepress-118" class="tablepress tablepress-id-118"><thead><tr class="row-1 odd"><th class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Outside Group</font></th><th class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ads Airings</font></th><th class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Est. Cost (in Millions)</font></th><th class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Percent of Ads</font></th></tr></thead><tbody class="row-hover"><tr class="row-2 even"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Full</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">23,075</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$6.2</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">26.0%</font></td></tr><tr class="row-3 odd"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Partial</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">14,572</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$5.0</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">16.4%</font></td></tr><tr class="row-4 even"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">None</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">51,158</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$16.7</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">57.6%</font></td></tr></tbody></table>

<h6><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Figures are from January 1, 2017 to May 3, 2018. Numbers include

broadcast television. SOURCE:&nbsp;Kantar Media/CMAG with analysis by the

Wesleyan Media Project. <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/disclosure.php?range=ytd" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><b>CLICK HERE</b></a>&nbsp;for

a description of the difference between a&nbsp; partial and fully

nondisclosing group. In the table, “Full” means the outside group

discloses its sources of funding to the FEC.</font></h6>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Dark Money</b></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Most of the TV ads purchased by

outside groups — or two out of every three ads — came from a “dark

money” group, according to the study. </span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">These groups — which tend to be

501(c)(4) social welfare organizations that are not supposed to have

politics as their primary purpose and are not required to disclose their

donors — tend to spend heavily during the long run-up to an election.

That’s because the groups can run ads that mention a candidate and

reference an issue, such as health care or taxes, as a way to

demonstrate either their support or opposition to a particular candidate

without saying “vote for” or “vote against.” </span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Such ads only have to be reported to

the FEC 30 days before a primary or 60 days before the general election,

making them an effective way for nominally apolitical groups to run

stealth political ads. </span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">During the 2014 midterms, groups like the Koch-linked Americans for Prosperity </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/11/as-fec-window-opened-subjects-of-dark-money-issue-ads-became-targets-for-defeat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">bought tens of thousands of ads</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">

before they ever reported any spending to the FEC. This report shows a

similar trend, with AFP having run more than 15,000 ads in six critical

Senate races and two gubernatorial races at an estimated cost of $5.4

million, while </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/recips.php?cmte=C90013285&cycle=2018"><span style="font-weight: 400;">only having reported $44,643 to the FEC</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for their activity in a Pennsylvania race for a U.S. House seat.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Similarly, Majority Forward — a

nondisclosing 501(c)(4) linked to Democratic leadership in the Senate —

has only reported $37,461 in two Senate contests, even though the ad

data in the report shows the group has run more than 5,700 spots in six

Senate races at an estimated cost of $1.2 million.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Democrats often decry the way that

well-funded conservative dark money groups use the FEC’s reporting

windows to engage in stealth political spending, but Majority Forward </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/09/dems-in-new-hampshire-supported-by-the-secret-money-they-rail-against-nationally/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">has shown a propensity to adopt the same practices</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The study also found an increase in

TV ad-buys for state races. Among gubernatorial races, the number of ads

had doubled from about 174,000 to 350,000 over the same period in the

2014 and 2018 cycles.</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">...</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 400;">docs]
</span></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><table id="tablepress-116" class="tablepress tablepress-id-116 dataTable no-footer" role="grid"><tbody class="row-hover"><tr class="row-2 even" role="row"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Action Network</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">16,056</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$4.6</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">R</font></td><td class="column-5"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">House

(CA-10, CA-21, CA-25, CA49, CO-06, FL-18, FL-26, IA-01, IA-02, ID-01,

IL-12, IL-13, IL-17, KS-03, ME-02, MN-01, MN-07, MN-08, NC-11, NE-02,

NV-03, NY-21, NY-22, NY-23, NY-24, NY-27, OH-10, PA-16, PA-17, TX-23,

VA-10, WI-01, WI-03)</font></td></tr><tr class="row-3 odd" role="row"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Americans For Prosperity</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">15,100</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$5.4</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">R</font></td><td class="column-5"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senate (IN, MO, MT, ND, VA, WI); Governor (VA, WI) </font></td></tr><tr class="row-4 even" role="row"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senate Majority PAC</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9,968</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$3.6</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">D</font></td><td class="column-5"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senate (IN, MO, MT, ND, WV, WI)</font></td></tr><tr class="row-5 odd" role="row"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senate Leadership Fund</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9,903</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$2.5</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">R</font></td><td class="column-5"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senate (AL)</font></td></tr><tr class="row-6 even" role="row"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Congressional Leadership Fund</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">8,457</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$4.6</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">R</font></td><td class="column-5"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">House (GA-06, MT-01, PA-18)</font></td></tr><tr class="row-7 odd" role="row"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Save My Care</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6,967</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$2.2</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">D</font></td><td class="column-5"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senate (AZ, NV); Governor (CT); House (AK-01, AZ-02, CA-21, CA-49, ME-02, NV-02, NJ-03, OH-01, OH-12, OH-16)</font></td></tr><tr class="row-8 even" role="row"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Majority Forward</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5,726</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$1.2</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">D</font></td><td class="column-5"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senate (AZ, IN, MT, ND, NV, WV)</font></td></tr><tr class="row-9 odd" role="row"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Restoration PAC</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5,579</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$1.9</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">R</font></td><td class="column-5"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senate (MT,WV, WI)</font></td></tr><tr class="row-10 even" role="row"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">State Solutions, Inc.</font></td><td class="column-2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4,823</font></td><td class="column-3"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$3.7</font></td><td class="column-4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">R</font></td><td class="column-5"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Governor (IL)</font></td></tr><tr class="row-11 odd" role="row"><td class="column-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All About Florida</font></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2010 TP takeover Noble, town halls, koch</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ELIANA JOHNSON<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>March 31, 2014 4:00 AM @ELIANAYJOHNSON&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A years-long campaign is bearing fruit. In one of the ads Americans for Prosperity (AFP) has put on the air this year, a thirtysomething actress stands against a white backdrop and looks into the camera. “People don’t like political ads,” she says plaintively. “I don’t like them either. But health care isn’t about politics, it’s about people, and millions of people have lost their health insurance, millions of people can’t see their own doctors, and millions are paying more and getting less.” At the close, a narrator urges viewers to “tell Mary Landrieu to stop thinking about politics and start thinking about people.” Such ads have also run against Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Mark Udall in Colorado, and incumbent Democratic House members in Arizona, Florida, and New Hampshire. Ads like the “white ad,” as it has become known, are not new to 2014. They are part of a sustained assault against Obamacare mounted with the help of the donor network organized by Charles and David Koch and the array of social-welfare groups it funds. The ads themselves, which have inflamed Democrats this election season, represent five years of knowledge, accumulated through polls and focus groups, about how to use the health-care issue to pull Americans into the GOP camp.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With AFP having spent over $30 million so far this year to bring down sitting Democratic senators, the ads also symbolize the changing nature of American politics. Since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, unlimited outside spending by 501(c)(4) social-welfare groups has finally allowed Republicans to match the political muscle of labor unions, whose spending was also blown open by the decision, but which have long poured money into Democratic coffers. That newfound equity is one reason why the AFP ads have sent Democrats into a tailspin and led them to make the ads, and two of the people funding them, a major campaign issue of 2014. Senate majority leader Harry Reid devoted much of a news conference and an entire speech on the Senate floor to attacking the Koch brothers, calling their efforts “un-American” and accusing them of trying to rig the political system in their favor. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has launched a digital campaign around the rallying cry “The GOP is addicted to Koch!” “The Koch Brothers have already spent $30 million this year savaging Democratic Senate candidates in an effort buy a U.S. Senate that is good for their family and bad for just about every other family in America,” the group said. AFP president Tim Phillips dismisses attacks like this as the “villain approach” to politics and says he’s not only skeptical of their efficacy but finds them morally repugnant. “If you google AFP, you’ll find that we’ve never gone after George Soros. It’s the right of every American to be involved in the political process — and frankly, the responsibility.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Koch network’s anti-Obamacare assault began in 2009 with Sean Noble,</b>&nbsp;a former chief of staff to Arizona congressman John Shadegg and then an adviser to the Koch brothers, and&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Randy Kendrick, the wife</b>of Arizona Diamondbacks part-owner Ken Kendrick and a prominent donor to the Kochs’ formidable fundraising network.&nbsp;Noble had worked with Arizona state legislators in 2008 on&nbsp;<b>Proposition 101, an amendment to the state constitution that would have prohibited employer and individual mandates in health insurance.</b>&nbsp;When it was defeated, Noble says, Kendrick urged him to take the health-care fight national</span>. “Randy Kendrick said, ‘Who do I have to give money to? What organizations are doing this?’” Noble tells me. When he surveyed the landscape,&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Noble found only 501(c)(3) groups such as the Galen Institute and the Pacific Research Institute,&nbsp;</span>which, unlike 501(c)(4)s, are prohibited from participating in campaign-related activity. There weren’t any groups operating in the (c)(4) space devoted to putting the brakes on a national health bill. For Kendrick, events added a sense of urgency to the cause.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was November of 2008: President Obama had won the election, and rumors swirled that he was set to nominate former South Dakota senator Tom Daschle to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services — a nomination eventually derailed by news that Daschle had for years failed to pay taxes on a car and driver lent to him by a wealthy friend. Kendrick had read Daschle’s 2008 book Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis and saw it as a blueprint for the legislation the Obama administration would look to enact. She was alarmed. Daschle noted polls and research showing that the political climate in 2008 was more favorable to a fundamental reform of the nation’s health-care system than it was in the early 1990s, when Hillarycare sputtered out. He pointed to growing support for “a so-called individual mandate” and urged readers to help overcome “the mistaken belief that we have the best health care in the world.”&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The result of Kendrick and Noble’s efforts was the Center to Protect Patient Rights (CPPR),</b>&nbsp;which was incorporated in April 2009 and funded largely through donations from the Koch network. The two attended a June 2009 Koch donor seminar in Aspen, Colo., where, Noble says, a federal takeover of health care was for the first time introduced to donors as an issue of urgent importance. Before lunch on the third and final day of the seminar, Noble says, Kendrick delivered an “impassioned speech” on the topic. “People were moved to tears by how invested she was in this,” Noble says, and at the lunch that followed her remarks, donors spontaneously pledged $13 million to the cause. Since then, similar lunches have raised over $100 million. ** With that largesse, CPPR produced dozens of ads that targeted hundreds of Democratic congressmen in the 2010 midterm elections, when Republicans regained 63 seats and recaptured the House majority in the largest midterm romp since 1938. Noble coordinated the disbursement of over $50 million to several other groups that paid to put the ads on the air: Americans for Prosperity, the 60 Plus Association, Americans for Job Security, Americans for Limited Government, and the American Future Fund.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Two years later,&nbsp;<b>California&nbsp;</b>officials? levied a $1 million fine on CPPR when they determined the group failed to disclose the intermediary sources of independent expenditures it made to oppose two ballot propositions in the state. CPPR funneled money to multiple groups, Noble says, both to protect the anonymity of donors and because IRS regulations prohibit any individual (c)(4) group from spending more than 50 percent of its time on candidate-related political activity.&nbsp;</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2010, though, the activity of the groups was extraordinarily well-orchestrated, with no two groups airing ads in the same congressional district. Attack ads against Democratic incumbents blanketed the country:&nbsp;</span>The&nbsp;<b>60 Plus&nbsp;</b>Association spent to air ads in Arizona’s 1st congressional district, Florida’s 2nd and 24th, Indiana’s 2nd, Minnesota’s 8th, New York’s 20th, Ohio’s 16th, Pennsylvania’s 3rd, and Wisconsin’s 3rd and 8th, for example, while&nbsp;<b>Americans for Job Security</b>&nbsp;put up ads in New York’s 24th, North Carolina’s 2nd and 8th, Ohio’s 18th, and Virginia’s 9th. The American Future Fund put up spots in Alabama’s 2nd, Colorado’s 7th, New Mexico’s 1st, and Washington’s 2nd.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To craft and produce the ads,<b>&nbsp;Noble brought in GOP pollster and wordsmith Frank Luntz and ad guru Larry McCarthy, the latter famous for producing the 1988 Willie Horton</b>&nbsp;ad that helped to sink Michael Dukakis’s presidential campaign.</span>&nbsp;In a series of focus groups, Luntz concluded that ads with an “ideological” feel to them wouldn’t work. “They weren’t credible or relevant to people in their day-to-day lives,” he says. “There was one political operative who thought rationing was the big issue. That wasn’t conceivable to people.” Neither was talk of death panels. Instead, Luntz found that emotional appeals were more effective and that women were considered more credible than men on the issue. “Women are more focused on quality of life and peace of mind,” Luntz says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;This year, all of AFP’s testimonial ads feature middle-class women speaking from their homes: Donna Marzullo and Helen DePrima in New Hampshire, Shannon Wendt and Julie Boonstra in Michigan, and a woman identified as Wanda in Marion, Ark. (Fact-checkers have called into question the accuracy of the testimonials delivered in some of these ads, as well as Reid’s contention that they are “absolutely false” and “made up from whole cloth.”) “What Frank did,” Noble says, “is he took political guys like me and like Larry and had to kind of shake us into understanding that we needed to treat this differently than we would a political campaign, that we had to do this not by beating someone over the head but by persuading.” Luntz, he says, “took the strengths of our arguments and amplified them.” CPPR’s initial efforts were aimed at preventing Obamacare’s passage, and one of the first ads Noble and McCarthy produced was a personalized warning about the dangers of nationalized health care. Over Memorial Day weekend in 2009, it went on the air in eight states that were home to crucial members of the Senate Finance Committee — including Republicans Susan Collins and Chuck Grassley — which was responsible for voting the bill that would become the Affordable Care Act out of committee and into the full Senate.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;In the ad, “Survivor,” paid for by one of AFP’s 501(c)(4) arms, PatientsUnitedNow, Ontario native Shona Holmes told viewers about her experience with the Canadian health-care system. “I survived a brain tumor, but if I had relied on my government for health care, I’d be dead,” she said. “I am a Canadian citizen, and as my brain tumor got worse, my government health-care system told me I had to wait six months to see a specialist. In six months, I would have died.” The ad blanketed the airwaves on Fox News; CNN’s Dana Bash flew to Ontario to interview Holmes and tell her story; and Jake Tapper, then of ABC News, took questions about her case to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper. Noble and his team at CPPR, which functioned out of the office of his consulting firm, DC London, in Washington, D.C., also worked with Americans for Prosperity and several other groups to turn out voters opposed to the emerging bill at the town-hall forums that senators were hosting in their home states during the 2009 August recess.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“We knew we had to make that summer absolute hell</span>,” Noble says. Local AFP chapters activated their networks, and CPPR placed calls to seniors who were considered Republican base voters, people over the age of 65 who had voted consistently in GOP primaries, urging them to come out to the town halls and arming them with talking points. The Cook Political Report wondered in September 2009 whether 2010 would prove to be the year “angry white seniors” decided the election in favor of Republicans, much the way “angry white males” were said to have turned the tide in 1994.&nbsp;<b>“We packed these town halls</b>&nbsp;with people who were just screaming about this thing,” Noble recalls. Scenes from those meetings, of constituents blowing up at their elected representatives and of public forums descending into chaos, blanketed the news throughout August. At a forum in Philadelphia where Arlen Specter (since deceased) appeared with Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the crowd, with spectators lining the walls, exploded when Specter admitted that he hadn’t personally read the legislation — which ran over 1,000 pages — but instead had assigned it out to his staff. “We expected we could turn out 250 people there,” Noble says. “Over 1,000 showed up.” “You have to make judgments very fast,” Specter explained as the audience shouted him down. Sebelius didn’t make any friends when she jumped to his defense. “The Senate bill isn’t written,” she said, “so don’t boo the senator for not reading a bill that isn’t written.” The crowd booed her in turn.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">* CPPR’s strategy changed when the House passed the Affordable Care Act and President Obama signed it into law in March 2010. Noble and his team set their sights on returning the House to the GOP. “We made a deliberate recommendation that you gotta focus on the House,” Noble says. “That’s where this bill passed. Pelosi broke so many arms of Democrats that had no business voting for that bill. Obamacare clearly was the watershed moment that provided the juice to deliver the majority back to the Republicans in the House.” On June 8, 2010, an&nbsp;<b>Excel spreadsheet listed 64 Democratic congressmen in order of the likelihood of their defeat.</b>&nbsp;The list of targets expanded to 88 in June and to 105 in August. Each of the House districts identified was given a<b>&nbsp;“win potential” between 1 and 5 and a score</b>&nbsp;between 1 and 40 based on the voting record of each member and the composition of the district, among other things. The 105 candidates were ultimately divided into three tiers based on the likelihood of a GOP victory, and resources were allotted accordingly. On Election Day, Republicans snatched 48 of the 50 seats in “tier 1” from Democrats and 61 of the 80 seats in the top two tiers. Noble and company went up with ads in June 2010, earlier than outside groups had ever gone on the air before.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">By August, some of the most vulnerable Democrats had been damaged so badly that the ads were no longer needed</span>. That was the case in Colorado’s fourth district, where Democratic incumbent Betsy Markey was running for reelection against<b>&nbsp;Republican Cory Gardner.&nbsp;</b>For a week in June and two weeks in August, Americans for Prosperity ran an ad against Markey that featured a series of her constituents, one of whom declared, “Markey betrayed us by voting for a government health-care plan.” With Markey’s own polling showing her approval rating at 38 percent, Noble says, “we did not spend another dime in that race from August until Election Day.” Between June and November, CPPR and the constellation of groups to which it disbursed millions of dollars in funds sought to tie Democrats not to President Obama, who inspires warm feelings among most Americans, but to&nbsp;<b>House speaker Nancy Pelosi. They used her name like a dirty word.&nbsp;</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The 60 Plus Association told Floridians that “Alan Grayson and Suzanne Kosmas are putting Nancy Pelosi’s liberal agenda ahead of seniors.” The American Future Fund told South Dakota voters that Stephanie Herseth Sandlin “votes to support Nancy Pelosi’s agenda more than 90 percent of the time.” Americans for Job Security put constituents from North Carolina’s second congressional district on the air to tell voters that their congressman, Bob Etheridge, “voted for Nancy Pelosi’s health-care plan.” Luntz’s research had demonstrated the need to tie Democratic congressmen to a more national figure. President Obama and Harry Reid proved far less likely than Pelosi to push swing voters into the Republican camp. “When we tied them to Pelosi, swing voters were more likely to vote against them 65 percent of them time,” Noble says. “She was absolutely toxic for her conference with swing voters.” Surprisingly, she produced a more negative reaction among women than did Reid and Obama. The political climate was so hostile to Democrats that Noble wound up running ads against Democrats who fell into tier 3, incumbents he’d determined it would be difficult to pick off. “There was some interesting stretching of the field that no one thought was possible,” he says. In late October, the 60 Plus Association dumped $100,000 into an ad buy in Minnesota’s eighth congressional district, where incumbent Jim Oberstar, the chairman of the Transportation Committee, had served for over three decades.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His opponent, a young Navy captain and virtually a political unknown, was deeply underfunded. The spot featured a picture of Oberstar with a grinning Pelosi looming in the background. “He votes with his party 97 percent of the time,” a narrator said, “for $500 billion in Medicare cuts, Nancy Pelosi’s budgets, and debts future generations can’t afford.” Cook Political Report analyst David Wasserman noted that “even many local Republicans can’t get their head around the idea that Navy Captain Chip Cravaack, who in July had $24,000 in the bank to Oberstar’s $1.1 million and warned that the U.S. was headed towards socialism under President Obama, is a serious threat to the 36-year House veteran and Transportation Committee chair.” On Election Day, Cravaack eked out a victory by 1.6 percentage points.&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">*&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AFP has taken the lead in the ad wars again this year. The Center to Protect Patient Rights, under Noble’s leadership, recently rebranded itself as American Encore, a group that will focus on a broader set of issues including the proposed IRS regulations and the free-enterprise system. AFP’s goal is to help recapture the Senate. AFP president Tim Phillips thinks it’s possible to do so by pressing the Obamacare issue. “Some say the further you get from the passage of a law, the tougher it gets to move America,” he tells me, “but Obamacare is different because the impact is evolving, Americans’ experiences with the law are evolving, and most of them are bad.” Noble puts it more sharply. “What we warned people was going to happen is now happening,” he says, “so it’s a natural extension of the debate. Now we’re saying ‘We told you so’ without saying ‘We told you so.’” In the ads themselves, warnings from Canadians like Shona Holmes have been replaced by testimonials offered on a state-by-state basis from those who say they’ve been hurt by the health-care law. AFP has linked local victims with their lawmakers’ support for the bill. Noble is confident that just as the issue allowed Republicans to recapture the House in 2010, it will give the GOP the “juice” to reclaim the Senate in 2014. “It’s kind of like this great story,” he says. “We don’t know how it’s going to end, but Democrats are going to lose twice over it.” Much to the chagrin of angry Democrats, the ad war is one that shows no signs of letting up. According to Phillips, “We think of this as year five of what very well could be a decade-long or more effort to defeat government-run health care.” If Harry Reid thinks he’s fed up with the Kochs now, he may just be getting the first taste of what their political network has in stor Read more at:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;http://www.nationalreview.com/article/374580/inside-koch-funded-ads-giving-dems-fits-eliana-johnson Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/374580/inside-koch-funded-ads-giving-dems-fits-eliana-johnson</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.nationalreview.com/article/374580/inside-koch-funded-ads-giving-dems-fits-eliana-johnson</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">kochs funded to beat BO agw:&nbsp;<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">carlton the wealthy eco-hypocrite (fang </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">110) make $ on saving the planet; actually CBO says BO policies wd lower cost energy</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=fwsw28t2wocC&dq=inauthor:%22Lee+Fang%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s">https://books.google.com/books?id=fwsw28t2wocC&dq=inauthor:%22Lee+Fang%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s</a></span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Ym2ZoGRteoYC&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=carlton+the+wealthy+eco-hypocrite+(fang+110)&source=bl&ots=ZbyXbtAgak&sig=vyTkqHbPdALqosvzPOS32UJAo2s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMI8pHk-9n-xgIVii6ICh1SiQSH#v=onepage&q=carlton%20the%20wealthy%20eco-hypocrite%20(fang%20110)&f=false">https://books.google.com/books?id=Ym2ZoGRteoYC&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=carlton+the+wealthy+eco-hypocrite+(fang+110)&source=bl&ots=ZbyXbtAgak&sig=vyTkqHbPdALqosvzPOS32UJAo2s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMI8pHk-9n-xgIVii6ICh1SiQSH#v=onepage&q=carlton%20the%20wealthy%20eco-hypocrite%20(fang%20110)&f=false</a></span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I asked award win ICN Sassoon, fresh off his Pulitzer win, what he thought of the news of Koch Industries potentially bidding on the&nbsp;<strong>Tribune Company</strong>&nbsp;newspapers. "We reported on the Kochs' involvement in the tar sands, and<b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;they played hardball to try to shut us up,"</b>&nbsp;he wrote in an email.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"They pressured&nbsp;<strong>Reuters</strong>&nbsp;to drop us as a content partner, and ran ads on&nbsp;<strong>Google</strong>&nbsp;and<strong>Facebook</strong>&nbsp;calling me liar</span>…. What we've experienced of them firsthand makes me think they would not be trustworthy stewards of the honorable traditions of journalism."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">interesting twist:</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Activist cell-phone company CREDO tried to run an advertisement on

Facebook calling on Facebook’s founder to stop running TV ads that

support the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Guess whether the social media giant liked that idea.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Facebook quickly rejected the ad, saying it violated its advertising policies.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="more-173382" /></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://grist.org/news/mark-zuckerbergs-political-group-funds-ads-promoting-keystone-and-anwr-drilling/" target="blank">We told you last week</a> about <a href="http://www.fwd.us/landing?splash=1" target="blank">FWD.US</a>,

a political group&nbsp;cofounded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to push for

immigration reform. One of the group’s subsidiaries is running an ad

praising Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in which Graham voices his support

for Keystone XL and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, along with his

opposition to “ObamaCare.” The ad is apparently attempting to bolster

the lawmaker’s support among conservatives, which is jeopardized by his

support of immigration reform. An ad financed by another FWD.US

subsidiary supports Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), praising him for

pursuing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Facebook does not want its billion or so users hearing from its opponents on this issue.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/facebook-rejects-ad-criticizing-actions-of-zuckerberg-political-group/2013/04/30/d41b9bb0-b1ba-11e2-bbf2-a6f9e9d79e19_story.html" target="_blank">From <em>The Washington Post</em></a>:</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ad was rejected when CREDO tried to post it to the

social network. According to an e-mail the company received from

Facebook, the ad violates Facebook policies because it uses Zuckerberg’s

image.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Facebook policies do state that it will reject ads that contain

Facebook logos, icons or trademarked images in a way that falls outside

of its usage guidelines or if the advertisements incorrectly imply the

social network has given its “partnership, sponsorship or endorsement”

to the ad.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a statement, Facebook said it generally rejects “ads that contain

Mark’s image because — not surprisingly — in our experience those ads

tend to be confusing for users, and frequently misleading. Users may

click on the ad thinking it is a message from Mark or from Facebook, not

understanding that they are actually in an advertisement seeking to

take advantage of Mark’s image.”</font></p></blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CREDO isn’t the only group taking to Facebook to object to the Graham and Begich ads. <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/mark-zuckerberg-group-keystone-oil-ads-90752.html" target="_blank">From Politico</a>:</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Sierra Club is taking a similar approach. The

environmental group encouraged its members Monday to share a note that

says, “Zuckerberg promoting dirty fuels? DISLIKE.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The critics say they are infuriated that a group backed by Zuckerberg

and green-minded venture capitalists like John Doerr could be

supporting ads that tout oil drilling.</font></p></blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, Keystone XL opponents are <a href="http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/2013/04/30/protesters-target-zuckerberg-at-facebook-hq/" target="_blank">planning a protest today</a>

that will be harder for Facebook to simply squash. The protest will be

conducted the old-fashioned way, in person, outside of Facebook’s

headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Go ahead and post this story on Facebook — the image of the banned

advertisement should show up automatically. And let us know in our

comment section below whether the Facebook overlords take it down.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here is one of the television ads that has activists riled:</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>---</b></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>BS GMO ads</b></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><h1 class="title-news"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prop 37 GMO Labeling Law Defeated By Corporate Dollars And Deception, Proponents Say</font></h1><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><div class="comments_datetime_new border_none relative v05">

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="posted-and-updated">Posted: <span itemprop="datePublished">11/07/2012 8:42 pm EST</span> Updated: <span itemprop="dateModified">11/07/2012 9:28 pm EST</span></span></font></p>

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<div itemprop="photo" class="big_photo"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><img brain="false" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/852757/thumbs/s-PROP-37-GMO-large.jpg?5" alt="Prop 37 Gmo" id="img_caption_2090112" class="pinit" width="260" height="190" /></font></div>

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<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Proponents of Proposition 37, the California ballot measure that would have required labeling of genetically engineered foods, are attributing Tuesday's narrow defeat to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/25/chemical-industry-campaign-contributions-environmental-regulations_n_2017412.html" target="_hplink">corporate dollars and deception</a>, but are also pledging to persist in a battle that they see as key to the health of Americans.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I think this election was largely a story of money. We didn't have the funds to compete," Stacy Malkan, media director of <a href="http://www.carighttoknow.org/tags/yes_on_37" target="_hplink">Yes on 37</a>, said on a Wednesday press call. "Ultimately, we were not able to get the truth out to voters."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="http://www.noprop37.com/" target="hplink">"No on 37" campaign</a>, funded primarily by agro-chemical giants including Monsanto and DuPont, outspent the "Yes on 37" campaign <a href="http://votersedge.org/california/ballot-measures/2012/november/prop-37/funding" target="hplink">five-to-one</a>. Prior to the opposition's $46 million push, proponents had held a consistent two-fold lead in the polls. But they lost on Tuesday, with voters rejecting the measure 53.1 to 46.9 percent.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"California voters clearly saw through Prop 37," Dr. Henry I. Miller of the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University, said in a statement on Wednesday. "Food labeling policy should be based on logic and science, not fear. Leading scientific organizations have all agreed that foods containing genetically engineered ingredients are safe and are not materially different from their traditional counterparts."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Malkan highlights Miller's lead role in the opposition's campaign as part of the "lies, deceit and trickery" that, she said, her campaign was unable to publicly correct. The known supporter of oil and tobacco companies and climate change skeptic was <a href="http://www.stanforddaily.com/2012/10/17/university-objects-to-no-on-37-ad-implying-stanford-endorsement/" target="hplink">misrepresented as a Stanford doctor</a> in a television campaign ad until the university ordered it re-shot. She also pointed to the opposition's <a href="http://www.carighttoknow.org/documented_deceptions" target="hplink">distribution of deceptive mailers</a> and its misrepresentation of the positions of scientific organizations and government agencies such as the <a href="http://www.eatright.org/Media/content.aspx?id=6442472418#.UJrlp-Oe9-q" target="_hplink">Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics</a> and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Directly above the official FDA seal, a <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/prop37/pages/48/attachments/original/1350493336/NO_flyer.pdf?1350493336" target="hplink">campaign mailer</a> read that the agency "says a labeling policy like Prop 37 would be 'inherently misleading.'" A <a href="http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/oct/19/supporters-prop-37-call-nos-campaign-mailers-gmo/" target="hplink">FDA spokeswoman later denied</a> that the agency had made "such statements with respect to Prop 37."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As for Miller's point that genetically engineered ingredients are safe, even some proponents of labeling so-called GMOs generally agree.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"A GMO crop, in theory, is not something to be afraid of," said Laura Vandenberg, a biologist at Tufts University and co-author of an <a href="http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2012/yes-labels-on-gm-foods" target="_hplink">editorial published last week</a> in favor of labeling efforts. "The problem is how they are actually used in the real world. It's like talking about guns vs. gun control. Guns don't hurt people, people hurt people."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most GMO crops in use in the U.S. have been engineered to resist herbicides, which allows growers to spray the chemicals without concern about harming their corn, rice or soy harvest. But as The Huffington Post previously reported, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/17/gmo-label-pesticides-health-proposition-37_n_1797609.html" target="_hplink">growing resistance among weeds</a> is leading farmers to apply larger quantities of chemicals to achieve the same level of control.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, contrary to biotech industry claims of a reduction in the use of pesticides and herbicides, a recent study estimated that GMO crops have resulted in an <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/pesticides-gmo-monsanto-roundup-resistance_n_1936598.html" target="_hplink">additional 404 million pounds of toxic pesticides</a> doused on U.S. fields between 1996 -- when they were first introduced as farm crops -- and 2011. That's about a 7 percent increase.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This means we're being exposed to a lot more of these chemicals," Vandenberg said. "Some of these chemicals we know very little about in terms of safety. But there are ones we know are <a href="http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/index.cfm" target="_hplink">endocrine disruptors</a>."</font></p>

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</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

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</font><div class="asset-header">

<h1 class="asset-name"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nonprofits, Shell Corporations Help Shield Identity of Ad Backers</font></h1>

<div class="asset-meta"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="byline">By <a target="_blank" href="http://opensecrets.org/news">Russ Choma</a> on October 30, 2012 6:01 PM </span>

</font><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style" style=" margin: 10px 0 10px 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="addthis_separator">|</span> <a target="_blank" href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=crpadmin" class="addthis_button_expanded">More</a></font></div>

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</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>===</b></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alexi Giannoulias “can’t be trusted,” the 2010 election ad said. His family’s bank loaned money to mobsters, he accepted an illegal tax break and he even squandered money that families were saving for college.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If the charges were true, the U.S. Senate candidate from Illinois must have been a real creep. But they were bogus. Giannoulias, the Democratic candidate, lost anyway.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His accuser was not his opponent. It was an anonymously funded, pro-Republican nonprofit called <a href="http://www.iwatchnews.org/2012/06/21/9168/nonprofit-profile-crossroads-gps">Crossroads GPS</a>, a “social welfare” organization that, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s <em>Citizens United</em> decision, can accept unlimited donations from corporations, wealthy individuals and unions, and run attack ads.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In short, it functions just like the better-known super PACs but with a major distinction — it is not required to disclose its donors, despite the high court’s consistent support for disclosure rules</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>===</b>

&nbsp;</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11/11 attacks on elizabeth warren &nbsp;<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/11124/roves-crossroads-gps-attacks-occupy-movement-elizabeth-warren">http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/11124/roves-crossroads-gps-attacks-occupy-movement-elizabeth-warren</a> &nbsp;and lee fang, see dirty tricks</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">atawater et al BKSH pioneered the attack ad to drive up negatives?</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alltime high in 2010 b/c of Citizen United 527?</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CA 2011: Turn Right USA, a conservative superPAC.&nbsp;</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/06/17/137248760/in-raunchy-california-ad-echoes-of-willie-horton">http://www.npr.org/2011/06/17/137248760/in-raunchy-california-ad-echoes-of-willie-horton</a></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">tpm:&nbsp;</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That could be about to change, thanks to the web ad produced by the brand-new <a href="http://www.turnrightusa.org/">Turn Right USA</a> PAC, which filed its official paperwork last week.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Simply put, the ad is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Horton">Willie Horton</a> on steroids. The 90-second clip accuses Hahn of being too cozy with gang criminals in the past, a charge she's faced for a while and her campaign says has been <a href="http://www.insidesocal.com/crime%26courts/2008/06/lapd-officers-who-accused-hahn.html">thoroughly debunked</a>.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The spot is produced by Ladd Ehlinger, Jr., best known for his wildly popular Dale "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU7fhIO7DG0&feature=player_embedded">Don't Give A Rip</a>" Peterson campaign video in the 2010 race for Alabama secretary of agriculture. Turn Right USA, the sponsor, is a brand new political action committee which only filed its paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Monday. The paperwork indicates that Turn Right USA intends to operate as a so-called "super PAC," capable of raising funds in unlimited amount, but will not use those funds to directly support federal candidates or committees. Claude Todoroff serves as treasurer for the group, which is based in Gardena, Calif. G. Rick Marshall serves as the group's designated agent.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

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<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Attack ads' go-to guy</strong>

<span class="author"> By: Kenneth P. Vogel

October 29, 2010 03:43 PM EDT</span></font></p>

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<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The explosion of <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43441.html">spending by Republican-allied outside groups</a> has made the 2010 midterms a great time to be Larry McCarthy, the GOP’s leading practitioner of the art of the attack ad.

McCarthy, who made his name as the maker of arguably the most devastating negative advertisement in modern history, the 1988 Willie Horton ad that helped defeat Michael Dukakis, has emerged as the go-to ad maker for the independent groups that have flooded the airwaves with tens of million dollars of ads <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43560.html">targeting Democrats</a>.

“The marketplace picks winners and losers and right now the political marketplace is picking Larry McCarthy as a winner,” said Craig Shirley, a conservative public relations consultant who worked with McCarthy on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io9KMSSEZ0Y">Horton ad</a>, which was widely criticized for its racial overtones.

A majority of the $1.5 million in political business done this year by McCarthy’s boutique advertising firm, McCarthy Marcus Hennings, has come from top-spending outside groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Future Fund, Americans for Job Security, and American Crossroads and Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies. And they know what they’re getting.

“Anybody associated with the Willie Horton ad who’s still out there making ads has to be considered in a class by themselves,” said Michael Franz, an associate professor at Bowdoin College who studies political ads.

McCarthy’s ads <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY88S-k74y0">often echo</a> Republican talking points linking Democratic congressional candidates to President Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and, according to nonpartisan fact-checkers, they sometimes play fast and loose with the truth.

But McCarthy’s trademark is his ability to effectively weave in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unYzX_quvbc">appeals to fear or anger</a>&nbsp;— sometimes with a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrz06XZH5RE">humorous wink</a>, other times with the <a href="http://california.uschamber.com/">sledgehammer</a> he deployed in the Horton ads.

“What would it feel like if someone broke into your home, or stole your credit card or ripped off your car?” intones the narrator in an Americans for Job Security ad as a shadowy ski-masked figure with a flashlight smashes a window and enters a dark home. The spot, versions of which are running against at least seven Democratic congressional candidates, including Rep. Zack Space of Ohio, continues, “Would you be upset? Then what about what’s happening in Washington?

“Zack Space voted for Nancy Pelosi's budgets and debt, for job-killing energy taxes, and for her wasteful stimulus. And we still lost more than 2.5 million jobs. With Pelosi and Space's agenda, it can feel like you're getting robbed,” concludes the ad, which Politifact.com rated “half true.”</font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An ad McCarthy cut for the American Future Fund features images of the smoldering World Trade Center ruins in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and equates the plan to build an Islamic Center and mosque near the site to “the Japanese building at Pearl Harbor.”

The ad targets Iowa Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley, asserting he “supports building a mosque at ground zero.”

There’s no record of Braley supporting the mosque, and his campaign blasted the ad, <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42293.html">obliquely referencing</a> the irony that, even though the group behind the ad doesn’t disclose its donors, the ad nonetheless alleges that the imam behind the mosque plan “is raising millions overseas from secret donors.”

“Larry’s not interested in winning awards for making pretty commercials,” said Shirley, who remains close to McCarthy. “A lot of ad makers on both sides want to satisfy their own demo reel instead of the needs of the organization or client. Larry’s not one of them,” Shirley said. “He understands the political process is about moving numbers and if that means taking apart your opponent, then that’s what you have to do.”

But McCarthy, in a series of e-mails with POLITICO, brushed off concerns raised by fact-checkers (who he said have “a Democratic slant” but little impact on voters), and suggested the press pays too much attention to negative ads in general and his in particular, because “reporters like covering ads instead of issues.”

He pointed out that his firm also has worked for non-campaign clients (the <a href="http://www.mmhdc.com/Clients/default.aspx">roster</a> includes Verizon, Amtrak&nbsp;— and even the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, which supports a proposal to limit and create a market for carbon emissions that has encountered virtually <a href="http://www.mmhdc.com/Clients/default.aspx">unanimous opposition</a> from Republicans in Congress).

And, according to McCarthy, 2010 has not seen a higher percentage of negative ads than past elections.

“Don’t think the ratios of negative to positive, or the overall tone of political ads have changed as long as I’ve been in the business,” said McCarthy, 58, who got his start in politics in the late 1960s as a 17-year-old working in the mailroom of the late Sen. Jacob Javits, a liberal New York Republican. “If your mix of ads gets too negative, your own poll numbers usually suffer more than your opponent's.”

McCarthy said, “Our positives are just as good as our negatives,” and gave as an example a celebrated 2004 ad featuring a young Ohio woman named Ashley Faulkner whose mother died in the 2001 terrorist attacks recounting how then-President George W. Bush comforted her during a campaign visit to Lebanon, Ohio.

Progress for America Voter Fund, an outside group funded by many of the same mega-donors now contributing to American Crossroads, spent $16 million airing “Ashley’s Story” in 10 states, and Bob Shrum, a top consultant to Bush’s Democratic rival John Kerry <a href="http://media.www.ramcigar.com/media/storage/paper366/news/2005/11/30/News/Uri-Professor.Accuses.Bush.Campaign.And.Pfa.Of.illegal.Coordination-1116226-page2.shtml">said it had a major impact</a>.</font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“’Ashley’ was real, was human, people could relate to it,” he said, adding the ad “probably cost us the presidency.”

But Franz, who wrote the 2008 book “Choices and Changes: Interest Groups in the Electoral Process” and co-directs the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks political ads, said “Ashley” still managed to incorporate McCarthy’s trademark edge, through her father’s recollection that his wife “was murdered by terrorists on Sept. 11.”

“The Ashley ad is not the typical fluff piece where you’re walking down the street with constituents who are listening to your wisdom,” he said. “It still invokes the scariest event on the homeland in many, many years, so there’s a fear message embedded in it subtly.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McCarthy is better known “for the biting attack&nbsp;— the kinds that are straight in your face, either using fear messaging or angering messaging,” Franz said, adding that the surge of negative ads by conservative outside groups has enabled Republican candidates to benefit while arguing “my hands are clean from these vicious attacks.”

Meanwhile, the Wesleyan Media Project this week <a href="http://election-ad.research.wesleyan.edu/2010/10/26/negativity-update/">reported</a> that Democratic candidates, who have gotten <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42521.html">less help from outside groups</a>, are more likely to air negative ads themselves.

But Franz said McCarthy’s outside group ads often are so negative they can risk “boomeranging” and hurting their intended beneficiary.

“Whether you study it in the lab or whether you study it in the real world, there is a tipping point, which we haven’t been able to locate, but it definitely exists and McCarthy is always treading close to that line,” Franz said. “But he’s famous, so he probably gets a little more leeway in terms of how close he hews to that line.”

McCarthy produced the iconic Willie Horton ad for an independent group called the National Security PAC, and it defined his career&nbsp;— mostly, but not always, for the best.

The ad used the story of Horton, a convicted murderer who raped a woman while on furlough from a Massachusetts state prison, to make the case that Dukakis, who was governor at the time, was weaker on crime than his Republican rival, then-Vice President George H. W. Bush.

The ad drew criticism as racially incendiary for featuring a menacing looking photograph of Horton, who is black&nbsp;— an image McCarthy once <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/politics/feature/2000/08/25/horton">described</a> as "every suburban mother's greatest fear."

At the time of the ad, The New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/03/us/bush-his-disavowed-backers-and-a-very-potent-attack-ad.html">called it</a> “a case study in how independent political committees can have a major impact on a national campaign and provide a vehicle for carrying out attacks with which a campaign organization cannot be associated.”

And McCarthy, who had recently left the ad firm headed by Bush’s then-media adviser (and current Fox News Channel president) Roger Ailes, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/03/us/bush-his-disavowed-backers-and-a-very-potent-attack-ad.html?pagewanted=3">told the Times</a> his ads could be harder hitting than Bush campaign’s because “we didn't have to worry about our own supporters' being upset or about attacks from the press or the Dukakis campaign.”</font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today, McCarthy seems somewhat miffed that the ad is such a major part of his legacy.

“Reporters love to write the words ‘Willie Horton,’ even though I’ve probably cut 10,000 ads in my life,” he <a href="http://www.baseballsavvy.com/archive/w_horton.htm">told POLITICO</a>. “Republicans love the Horton ad. Partisan Democrats hate it. Real people either don’t know who he is or think Willie Horton was an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers, which, of course, he was.”

But the ad also prompted at least one campaign to ask for his resignation years later when opponents raised the ad as an issue, and the liberal press <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/08/26/horton-muslims-political/">pounced on it</a> when AFF rolled out the mosque ad.

Perhaps more significantly, it sparked a <a href="http://www.politico.com/static/PPM156_fec_gnl_cnsl_report_111391.html">Federal Election Commission investigation</a> into whether the National Security PAC illegally coordinated with the Bush campaign on what by law was supposed to have been an independent ad.

The FEC staff wrote that they had uncovered “several factors that would appear to support a finding that National Security PAC’s expenditures were not independent,” including that Ailes “may have implicitly communicated to Mr. McCarthy ... information about the candidate’s needs (for) ... developing and airing negative ads.”

Though the case was dropped when the FEC’s six commissioners deadlocked in a 3-3 party-line vote over whether to proceed, one of the Republican commissioners, Tom Josefiak, conceded at the time that Ailes and McCarthy “demonstrated some bad judgment that risked the appearance of or provided an opportunity for coordination.”

In a sign of how close-knit the Republican campaign world is, Josefiak is now the lawyer for the Crossroads political groups for which McCarthy is working. And he has had to respond to unrelated coordination allegations leveled by Democrats, who have signaled they may file additional complaints alleging illegal coordination between outside groups and parties or candidates.

McCarthy, for instance, has been paid $338,000 to cut ads for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee in states where his outside group clients are active, such as Nevada, but he hasn’t worked on the same races for both clients, which would be illegal.

“It’s a perfect storm, in a lot of ways,” said analyst Norman Ornstein, pointing to predictions of a wave election, as well as a January <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31786.html">Supreme Court decision</a> that paved the way for anonymously funded political ads.

“For Larry, it’s a happy conjunction of circumstances for his business,” said Ornstein, who co-wrote a 1988 book with McCarthy called “The People, the Press and Politics,” and who remains friends with him.

“It’s not like Larry has caused this. These ads are run because they work, but what I fear is that we are already deeply down on politics and our institutions, and this is going to make it so much worse.”</font></p>

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