Senate Ads: The Last Roundup

Remember the United States Senate? Thirty-five seats up for election? Republicans in danger of losing a half-dozen or more?

While most everyone was talking about the presidential contest, what the next president actually does will be significantly determined by the composition of the Senate. So here's our roundup of the latest, and last, Senate ads.

Republicans Who Care is a 527 formed to support moderate Republicans and counterbalance the Club for Growth, which works to supplant moderates with conservatives. This year it wanted to prop up Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), in danger of being picked off by Democrat Jeff Merkley.

The group received $50,000 this year from hedge fund billionaire Robert Ziff and another $50,000 from Amory Houghton Jr., a former Republican congressman who used to run Corning Inc. James R. Houghton, retired chair of Corning, also gave $20,000.

Amo Houghton also founded the Republican Main Street Partnership, which spawned Republicans Who Care. Sarah Chamberlain Resnick handles finances for both groups.

The Republicans Who Care ad in Oregon accuses Merkley of supporting higher taxes...and taxes and taxes and taxes.

The housing and construction industries didn't want to lose Sen. Smith either. Both the National Association of Home Builders and the Associated Builders and Contractors trade association took to the radio airwaves with ads cheerleading for Smith.

We couldn't get ABC to share its ad with us, but the Home Builders ad says Smith "keeps watch to ensure equality and fiscal responsibilty" from his perch on the Senate Finance Committee. The Home Builders association has given Smith $41,000 over his career, making it Smith's 11th largets contributor, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Some of the lines in the ad are made for kindergarten (no offense to kindergarteners), but they get the message across: "Few committees are more important. Sounds like a tremendous amount of work. It is. And Gordon Smith is ready for more of it. That is a good thing."

And now for Republicans Who Don't Care....No. Just kidding.

The Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, which popped up to support McCain in the Republican primaries, targeted the not-exactly-endangered Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD). The group was formed by former McCain advisor Rick Reed, who co-produced the TV ads for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004. (McCain denounced the group's efforts during the primaries.)

Concentrating now on Senate races, the 501(c)(4) reportedly ran a radio ad against Democratic candidate Bruce Lunsford in Kentucky. The South Dakota ad blames Democrats for the economic crisis and knocks Johnson for taking money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Check out Citizens for Strength and Security and Americans for Job Security after the jump...

Continue reading "Senate Ads: The Last Roundup" »

9:02 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Union Power -- More Than Meets The Eye

Organized labor is in the mail, on the airwaves and on the streets for Obama and other Democratic candidates. And there's even more union activity underneath the surface. Besides their own ads and massive get-out-the-vote campaigns, which we detail below, unions are bankrolling the attack ads of several other advocacy organizations.

Here are some new disclosures:

Parting Shots From The Left

It's the final push, folks, and they're pushing hard. Here's a wave of liberal ads hoping to unseat Senate Republicans -- and a video representation of Republican fear.

People for the American Way rolls out TV ads criticizing Republican senators for supporting "judges who hurt our families." The ads say that Susan Collins of Maine, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina "stood with George Bush and helped put his extreme nominees on our nation's highest court." Here's the one about Collins, who is the group's focus:

Patriot Majority continues to batter Republican incumbents and continues to receive giant bundles of union cash. Recent ads include one accusing Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) of siding with "corporate interests and one faulting Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) for supporting free trade agreements.

Another takes on Dole, saying, "They know us as Tar Heels for standing our ground. But when Elizabeth Dole votes with George Bush 92 percent of the time, the ground starts to crumble." The ground-crumbling metaphor is aided by a visual in the ad.

Patriot Majority reported getting $1.5 million from AFSCME this month, as well as $125,000 from the Teamsters and $25,000 from Patricia Bauman, who is president of the liberal Bauman Foundation and board member of Catalist, a data-mining firm that works for Democrats.

It's enough to drive Freedom's Watch crazy. The conservative group has been one of biggest players running ads to stem the onslaught of Democratic Senate candidates.(Here's a recent one taking on Jeff Merkley, who's challenging Smith in Oregon.) In a video to be e-mailed to the Freedom's Watch rank and file tomorrow, you can feel the fear of the nightmare scenario: a filibuster-proof Democratic majority.

The dark and ominous video takes aim at Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, calling his "reckless policies" the cause of current economic woes. It warns that the DSCC is "spending nearly $100 million on a smear campaign funded by special interests." It continues, "A filibuster-proof Senate means unchecked power to pass their tax increases, their pork-barrel spending, and no ability to block activist judicial nominees." And the capper: "Too much power in one party's hand is too risky for America."

The irony of the last line -- since it was merely two years ago that voters ended six years of one-party GOP rule by giving congressional majorities to the Democrats -- is only surpassed by the sense of frustration, just days before the eleciton.

After the jump, even more liberal Senate ads -- silly and serious.

Continue reading "Parting Shots From The Left" »

3:19 PM ET | 10-29-2008 | permalink

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Who Could Oppose "Strength And Security"?

Democratic strategists must really love this name. Citizens For Strength and Security is a 527 organization set up recently by a former aide to former senator John Edwards in order to go after Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC). Since then, the group has picked up big contributions from labor unions and Patriot Majority (another 527 funded by labor unions).

Now, with two more scathing TV ads against Dole, the group is reporting another $280,000 from Patriot Majority, plus $25,000 from Leo Hindery Jr., who was senior economic policy adviser to Edwards. CSS also got $200,000 from Majority Action, yet another 527 funded largely by labor unions. Majority Action has even produced its own anti-Dole ads.

So why funnel money into a new group? Are strength and security more reassuring than patriots?

-- Will Evans

11:44 AM ET | 10-20-2008 | permalink

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Citizens For Strength And Security Unveiled

Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) might be curious who is funding an attack ad blaming her for job losses, especially now when she's increasingly in danger losing her own job.

All the ad said was "Paid for by Citizens for Strength and Security." Turns out the citizens are unions.

According to a new government filing, the group's ad was funded by the Service Employees International Union ($220,000), the Communications Workers of America ($200,000) and the Patriot Majority Fund ($280,000). Patriot Majority itself is funded mainly by labor unions.

Patriot Majority is, like Citizens for Strength and Security, a 527 organization run by a Democratic operative with ads targeting Senate races. Why not just merge?

-- Will Evans

3:05 PM ET | 10- 7-2008 | permalink

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Another Vague 527 Name, Another Attack Ad

Former Sen. John Edwards' political career may be over, but apparently there's still work for his campaign veterans.

A new 527 group set up by a former Edwards campaign official blames Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) for lost jobs. "Over the years," says the group's new TV ad, "she's gone onto 12 different jobs in Washington, while thousands of our jobs have been eliminated by unfair trade deals she supported." The ad ends with, "Sen. Dole, stop supporting tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas."

Democrats are currently taking a second hard look at Dole, who a few weeks ago had seemed to be consolidating her strength. This new 527, formed last month by Lora Haggard, appears to be part of that re-evaluation.

The group is cleverly named Citizens for Strength and Security. And perhaps in case that doesn't resonate, Haggard formed another 527 last month as well, called Citizens for Safety and Security.

Haggard has had plenty of experience with vague-but-pleasant-sounding organization names. Besides serving as Edwards' CFO in his presidential bid this year and as his comptroller in 2004, she's been a director of the Edwards-affiliated groups New American Optimists and the One America Committee. In 2004, she and other former Edwards aides ran Citizens for a Strong Senate, which spent millions on attack ads against Republican Senate candidates.

Jonathan Prince, another Citizens for a Strong Senate alum who recently served as Edwards' deputy campaign manager, now reportedly runs the independent expenditure arm of the Democratic National Committee.

Citizens for a Strong Senate was funded mainly by multi-million-dollar contributions from Herb and Marion Sandler, a California couple who ran a savings-and-loan before selling it to Wachovia Corp. These days, the Sandlers are bankrolling a nonprofit journalism organization called ProPublica.

Though Citizens for a Strong Senate hasn't reported doing much recently, it received $25,000 this year from Texas trial lawyer Ken Bailey, who won a historic settlement against tobacco companies in 1997. Perhaps Bailey believes in Strength and Security as well.

-- Will Evans

7:04 PM ET | 10- 3-2008 | permalink

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