Republican Front Group Skirts Election Law: Attacked Wellstone, Attacking Shaheen

In 2002, a shady Republican front group spent millions of dollars attacking Democratic Senate candidates across the country, including Paul Wellstone (D-MN). The group, Americans for Job Security (AJS), registered as an "issue advocacy" group, even though election laws prohibit such groups from electioneering for or against candidates. AJS's ability to skirt election laws allowed the group to take corporate contributions and hide the identity of its donors. The group spent an estimated $8.5 million nationwide against Democratic candidates in the final weeks of the 2002 election.

In Minnesota, AJS spent $1 million on ads calling Paul Wellstone a "money grubber" and accusing him of "taxing the dead." In the last days of his life, Paul traversed Minnesota denouncing AJS's illegal attacks and calling on the group to reveal its donors. I had the privilege of working for Paul Wellstone then. He was determined to stop a Virginia-based organization from buying Minnesota's election with attack ads. He knew that AJS had been started with funding from the big insurance companies and that their secret donations came from big corporate special interests trying to stop his progressive agenda.

Click here to see rare video of Paul Wellstone talking about the AJS attacks just a few days just a few days before he died.

Paul wasn't the only candidate AJS targeted in 2002. They spent another $1 million attacking Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire. This year, they are targeting Shaheen again in her rematch with John Sununu. It's only July and already AJS has poured an estimated $261,000 thus far into the Granite State to attack Shaheen as a big taxer. The fact that New Hampshire had the lowest tax burden in the nation the entire time Jeanne Shaheen was governor never gets a mention.

The Shaheen-Sununu rematch is one of the most important in the country. It's the Democrats' best chance of knocking off an incumbent, but more importantly, it is an opportunity to increase the number of progressives in the U.S. Senate. I have the privilege of working for Jeanne Shaheen now and I know that she and Sununu have opposing views on almost every issue: she is pro-choice, he is pro-life; she wants to end the war in Iraq, he's voted down the line with Bush to keep it going; she opposes tax subsidies to oil and gas companies, he votes to protect them; she supports the right of workers to organize, he votes to dismantle worker rights; she advocates a new energy policy to combat global warming, Sununu says "the science is still out" on climate change and accepts hundreds of thousands in corporate oil and gas campaign contributions. Make no mistake about it: Shaheen's progressive agenda is the real reason why AJS and the corporate special interests are lining up against her.

AJS is up to its old tricks, calling itself an "issue advocacy" group to hide the identity of its donors. Just as the Wellstone campaign did in 2002, the New Hampshire Democratic Party has filed a complaint against AJS with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) laying out a solid case as to why the group is in clear violation of election law. The NHDP complaint will join a similar complaint filed against AJS by the government watchdog group, Public Citizen. But, while the FEC takes its time, the attacks keep coming.

It's time to demand that the FEC enforce its own laws. In 2002, the Commission allowed ads calling Paul Wellstone a "money grubber" to pass as "issue advocacy" and in doing so allowed AJS to continue peddling its trash to this day. Paul was outraged by those ads and by this group. And so are we. Join us in demanding -- as Paul Wellstone did -- that these shadowy groups be stopped.

I encourage you to sign our petition to the Federal Election Commission to force AJS to abide by the law and reveal its donors. www.jeanneshaheen.org/petition/ajs

Comments

[UnbiasView]

I don't mind the attacks on Wellstone at all, his welfare push in the state of Minnesota is doing nothing but bringing criminals here and people from Chicago because they get more money.

His daughter however was my Spanish teacher long ago and would never wish harm to them.

[holyhandgrenaid]

These shenanigans in NH aren't going to be a problem. The voters in NH are not dumb, nor do we have that short a collective memory. We know that Shaheen has a great tax record (of course she does, no politician can hope to survive, let alone hold office in this state if they support aggressive taxes). Sununu is useless, and only beat Shaheen in '02 because it was a bad year for Dems nationwide. This mistake will not be repeated, and we will be sending Jeanne Shaheen to Washington come November You can't fool folks from New Hampshire, it gets in the way of living free and dieing.

[SilviaMaria]

I signed the petition because it is just fair that these groups disclose their donors; this way people can see who is behind them and make their own opinions.

[JTyroler]

Ah, our great election system - no wonder other nations have been offering to monitor our elections.

[Dirigo]

Thanks for posting this Mandy. Especially fitting as today is Paul's birthday. He would have been 64.

[Coronadoman]

I checked www.guidestar.org and here's what we find, all from their IRS 990 return, 2005:

a. It's a 501(c)6. I'm assuming y'all know what that means.
b. Michael Dubke, Art Hackney, Jean Cottington, Kirk Miller are the Board members.
c. Dubke was paid $143,750 in 2005
d. $2.4 million was spent on "media and SVC/placement"
e. 52-2062978 is their Employer ID number
f. Phone number: 703-535-3110

I'm ASSUMING they're spending lots more. Guidestar doesn't have a more recent 990 on their website yet. Can someone call them and ask them to email you from 2007, please?

[ceu]

A 501(c)(6) is a non-profit designation usually used for Chambers of Commerce or Boards of Trade.

[Thorn]

Partisan political ads? Now I've seen everything!

[dmacgregor]

These kinds of articles are especially troublesome. If these "issue advocacy" groups are not legally allowed to advocate for or against specific candidtates, why don't the articles ever explain how they are able to do it without suffering the consequenses any of us average citizens would face?

[Durango]

How do they get away with it?

Easy, when the Justice department has been filled with partisan hacks.

Very Easy.

[NewsCorpse]

Good work.

These snakes need to be exposed. This is the sort of thing that makes Obama's decision to turn down public financing so smart. McCain could just surround himself with shadowy groups like this and pretend they are not affiliated.

But, as they say, sunshine is the best disinfectant. And these groups only survive in the dark. Keep spreading the word.

Your friend, http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/

[NewHampshire]

There is no disinfectant in the world that would clean up Shaheen enough for me to ever vote for her.

The Dems in NH are just plain dirty - they wrote the book on illegal dirty tricks.

[ceu]

Those Dirty Dems...remember back in 2002 when they were jamming the phone banks in order to disrupt the effort to get out the vote? A few of them even ended up going to federal prison for their activities....oh wait! It's WASN'T the Dems! It was the REPUBLICANS!. Yes...it all comes back to me now. One of them's, Tobin, the New England regional director for the Bush campaign's, defense of over $700,000 was paid by the RNC. There were lots of fingers in that particular pie, including the WH Political Affairs Office - that would be Ken Mehlman, remember him? Guess they were reading that book that the Dems wrote, eh?

[certainot]

you enjoy channeling limbaugh and hannity?

[GuyRC]

The FEC is a government agency, and like all government agencies it has a mandate to serve Republicans. Why don't you liberals understand the way the government works?

[BeeOplentee]

So what? You folks have MoveOn and all kinds of other bogus "advocacy" groups. Politics as usual...

[Coronadoman]

Hmmm....well, Miss Bee, let's look at your "assertion", shall we?

You label MoveOn.org a "bogus" advocacy group. What do you know of their corporate identity? Are they a 501(c)4? Do they operate within the law?

Now, let's look at the "AJS" and see how they're constituted: Are they a 501(c)4? Do they operate within the law?

Since you do not say, your "assertions" are bogus. When you have something other than bee poop to distribute, by all means, honey, bring it on.

Cheers!

[LarBear]

Coronadoman..... QUOTE: "When you have something other than bee poop to distribute, by all means, honey, bring it on."

Still giggling here... Yo! Poopy Pants.... A bit o Bee's whacks? Warning: BeeOplentee... Watch out for Colonic Collapse, errrrrr ummmmm, something like that anyway......

You folks have Move on..... Hmmmmm, how could anything sweet be part of "those folks", I. E., Blight Winged Republicans? Blight Dinged Republicans?

[NewHampshire]

They are bogus because they are funded by George Soros, international criminal.

We also have UN funded groups here in NH pretending to be local, coming to the town meetings trying to sell an income tax.

These people need to get the hell out of NH -- go back to NYC or Vermont or whatever other liberal hell-hole you came from.

We have a man of questionable character running the Dems here too. Perhaps you heard of the charge of his lifelong pedophelia? Of course he got off scott free since the governor let the State Dems know before the AG's office so they had time to BREAK IN to the Dem HQ and steal the computer with the kiddie porn on it.......

[Snowball]

Well, if Move-On claimed to be a group advocating for the right of corporations to screw workers on behalf of the wealthiest 2% of Americans, you might have a point. As it is, your analogy could use a good honing.

[NewHampshire]

Bee you are so right. And who said Obama turned down public financing -- HE DID NOT!

"Mandy" should stick to her liberal NYC politicians that she knows about.

Shaheen was the worst governor NH ever had, and she RAISED TAXES and broke her pledge.
The Democrats have all sorts of double standards, where they can have non-secret ballots, lobbyists and dirty tricks and rampant voter fraud here in NH and yet they whine oh so loudly when anyone points out that they are fiscal boobs like Shaheen.

[certainot]

move on doesn't have to lie