Bob Perry seems like a sincere fellow. The Swiftboat ads were completely justified.
Also, to believe that Menedez is not a typical Hudson County crook would be naive.
To Kean Jr. is a nice wholesome lad.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, 1 Nov 2006 11:59 AM
Subject: [AsburyPark] The Man Behind The Ad
November 1, 2006
Behind the `Mob' Ad, a Republican Donor With a History
By LAURA MANSNERUS
TRENTON, Oct. 31 — A much-criticized television advertisement that
uses a mob character to impugn Senator Robert Menendez was financed
by a Republican donor who has given more than $6 million this year
to start ad campaigns attacking Democrats.
The donor, Bob J. Perry, a Houston home builder, gave $4.45 million
in 2004 to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an independent
organization that attacked Senator John Kerry's Vietnam War record,
damaging his presidential campaign and leading to protests about the
tactics used by such outside groups.
The anti-Menendez ad was produced by one such group, the Free
Enterprise Fund Committee, which said it received about $1 million
from Mr. Perry. His role in the ad was reported on Tuesday in The
Star-Ledger. Earlier this year, Mr. Perry started another group, the
Economic Freedom Fund, with a $5 million contribution. Together, the
committees are running attack ads in about a dozen states.
In the anti-Menendez ad, titled "Politicos," a stocky character with
a leather jacket and a "Sopranos" accent rasps into a cellphone: "We
got a problem. Our boy down in Washington, Bob Menendez, he's caught
in a federal investigation. The feds start looking at these fixed
contracts, and bada-bing, we're in it deep."
"We need to get the bosses to fix this thing, like they did for
Torricelli," he says at the end of the ad.
Jill Hazelbaker, a spokeswoman for Mr. Menendez's Republican
opponent, State Senator Thomas H. Kean Jr., said the campaign
condemned the ad when it started running a week ago. That statement,
Ms. Hazelbaker said, "makes clear that we loathe the ad."
She said the Kean campaign could not call on the sponsors to stop
running the ad. Campaign finance laws prohibit any direct contact
between campaign officials and the independent groups, known as 527s
after a provision in the federal tax code that permits them to spend
unlimited amounts as long as they do not coordinate efforts with
candidates.
But Matt Miller, a campaign spokesman for Mr. Menendez, said: "The
Republicans have been very good at getting all their donors to fund
side projects to smear Democratic candidates. We saw it pop up in
New Jersey with the Free Enterprise Fund ads, which repeated Tom
Kean Jr.'s smears."
Todd S. Schorle, a spokesman for the Free Enterprise Fund Committee,
said that Mr. Perry provided almost all of the group's financing but
that the ad was entirely the creation of the committee staff and the
agency that made it, Nelson Warfield and Company. Mr. Schorle said
the ad cost $200,015 and was to run for a week, ending today, on
cable stations in several North Jersey counties.
When asked about Mr. Perry, Mr. Schorle said, "We don't discuss any
of our donors."
The committee has run ads against other Democratic Senate
candidates, including Ned Lamont in Connecticut, Jon Tester in
Montana and Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee. The Economic Freedom Fund,
Mr. Perry's new committee, has run attack ads in at least five
states.
In Indiana, the state attorney general filed a complaint against the
group and forced it to stop automated telephone calls attacking a
Democrat, Baron Hill, who is challenging Representative Mike Sodrel.
Anthony Holm, a spokesman for Mr. Perry, declined to comment.
Mr. Perry is the nation's top donor to the independent groups this
year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks
federal campaign finance reports. In 2004 he and his wife, Doylene,
were the biggest Republican donors to 527 groups, giving $9.6
million.
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