Nov. 17, 2008

Ad-ing It All Up

The game is over. Some won, some lost, and a lot of people laid down their money.

Scores of independent groups went into hyperdrive for this election, reaching millions of people with some of the most vicious attack ads of the year. We saw new groups pop up out of nowhere; we saw old groups go to unprecedented lengths to help their candidates of choice; and we saw organized labor, corporate America and the partisan wealthy flood them all with money. For the last few months, we've tracked their moves at the Secret Money Project. We hope our reporting helped illuminate the sometimes-opaque forces of influence, and serves as a resource in the future.

While independent groups mostly stayed a sidenote during the campaigns -- particularly the heavily financed presidential contest -- they did leave their marks.

  • American Issues Project produced an ad in August that linked Senator Obama to one-time anti-war militant Bill Ayers. It kept Ayers in the mix as a campaign issue at a time when Sen. John McCain's organization wasn't ready to take that step.

  • At virtually the same time, the liberal Brave New Films made a viral video raising questions about McCain's multiple homes. The video led a print reporter to ask McCain about the real estate, and the candidate flubbed the answer, creating a new campaign issue.

  • The Clarion Fund inundated the presidential swing states with a DVD called "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West." It was a classic example of the murky space between campaigning and issue advocacy that many of these groups occupy. NPR listeners and npr.org readers told us about the DVD, and we give them our profuse thanks. All of them all told us the video seemed meant to promote McCain. As for the Clarion Fund, it hired a new public relations firm after we aired our broadcast story. But it never clarified its financing or activities -- as, indeed, it had no need to; the fund is a 501(c)(3) charity with minimal disclosure requirements. People speaking for the fund insisted there was no partisan agenda, and said they had distributed 28 million copies of the DVD in key election states only to attract the attention of reporters covering the race.

  • The biggest player among these groups was the Service Employees International Union, and sometimes it seemed to reach everywhere in the liberal establishment. And long before the election, SEIU had already budgeted $10 million to hold their favored candidates accountable to the union's agenda in 2009.

    But figuring out what impact the groups actually had on the campaigns is a tricky proposition. For one thing, the mish-mash of tax rules, campaign finance laws and Supreme Court decisions made it impossible to know precisely how much money they spent. We gave it a good try here, by adding together all the money that groups reported spending on election-related communications since July:

    PRESIDENTIAL RACE
    Conservative Groups: $40.9 million
    Liberal Groups: $53.1 million

    SENATE RACES
    Conservative Groups: $40.4 million
    Liberal Groups: $29.6 million

    This is a vast undercount, since many groups only have to report election ads that show up on TV or radio or that explicitly say to vote for or against a candidate.We recorded $4.2 million for MoveOn.org, for example, while the group engaged in plenty of other activities and said in a press release that it spent more than $30 million overall.

    Chalk it up to a system that, for better or worse, doesn't require vast amounts of election-related activity to be reported. Money, in any case, doesn't necessarily equal impact. Many organizations spent big on mobilizing their members and getting out the vote, and that counts for something.

    But what about those attack ads? All ads and groups are measured nowadays against the standard of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the 2004 group that wounded Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's aspirations. Nobody achieved Swift Boat status this year, though some tried hard, on the left (Brave New PAC) and right (National Republican Trust and American Issues Project).

    Perhaps the media, which hyped the Swift Boat group in 2004, learned their lesson and avoided giving any attack too much credit, theorizes John Geer, an expert on negative advertising at Vanderbilt University. Tom Matzzie, a Democratic strategist, has his own diagnosis: that the Internet has made it too easy to fact-check dishonest ads. Conservative operative Chris LaCivita, who went from Swift Boat Veterans in 2004 to American Issues Project this year, says it was just money. He says AIP simply couldn't raise enough from big donors after Wall Street crashed.

    And maybe attack groups never got a direct shot at a candidate's core message. The Swift Boat ads took aim at Kerry's war record, which he was running on. But this year, when the economy became the main issue for voters, attacks on Senator Obama's nefarious "associations" or McCain's health seemed less relevant.

    Plus, Senator Obama buried McCain and his allies with the biggest pot of money ever spent on an election. "With Obama's fundraising advantage, all the 527s kinda got crowded out," Geer says. "We're going to go to a system where the next presidential candidates are both going to have to raise so much money...that all of the sudden these people who are funding these 527s have to think about whether it's worth putting their money down."

    An interest group's goal is not only to help a candidate win, but also to ingratiate itself with the politician or party, says Steve Weissman, of the Campaign Finance Institute. Even if labor unions and such groups as MoveOn.org and Planned Parenthood didn't necessarily tip the election to Senator Obama, they dedicated a vast amount of money and resources to his cause, and now can hope that he feels indebted to them.

    Let's take a look at who racked up some chits. (Click on the links to watch the groups' ads and read about their funding and leadership.)

    PRESIDENTIAL RACE
    **Liberal Groups**
    1. SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION = $23,107,433
    2. UNITED AUTO WORKERS = $4,860,571
    3. MOVEON.ORG = $4,185,821
    4. AFSCME = $2,312,723
    5. PLANNED PARENTHOOD ACTION FUND = $2,096,495
    6. ADVANCING WISCONSIN = $2,094,687
    7. AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS = $1,997,375
    8. PROGRESSIVE FUTURE = $1,496,323
    9. SIERRA CLUB = $1,213,068
    10. HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICA NOW = $1,132,085
    11. NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA = $1,117,991
    12. DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE ACTION FUND = $1,021,241

    **Conservative Groups**
    1. NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION = $6,946,238
    2. NATIONAL REPUBLICAN TRUST = $6,592,925
    3. VETS FOR FREEDOM = $4,596,149
    4. NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE = $4,504,422
    5. LET FREEDOM RING = $3,257,939
    6. AMERICAN ISSUES PROJECT = $2,878,873
    7. REPUBLICAN MAJORITY CAMPAIGN = $1,851,120
    8. FOCUS ON THE FAMILY ACTION = $1,332,862
    9. RIGHTCHANGE.COM = $1,318,691
    10. REPUBLICAN JEWISH COALITION = $1,267,002
    11. COMMITTEE FOR TRUTH IN POLITICS = $1,192,510*
    12. NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FUND = $1,167,810

    *The total for the Committee for Truth in Politics is an estimate by the Campaign Media Analysis Group. The group argues in a pending lawsuit that it doesn't have to report its expenditures.

    The biggest spenders on the left were obviously labor unions. George Soros -- who made himself a political lightning rod by bankrolling anti-Bush groups in 2004 -- in this cycle gave $3.5 million to Fund for America, $1 million to America Votes, about half a million to other liberal groups, and that's all that we know of. Hollywood producer Steve Bing also spent $2.5 million on the Fund for America, and about a million more on other pro-Democratic groups.

    On the right, pharmaceutical executive Fred Eshelman apparently outspent Soros, dumping $5.5 million into his anti-Obama 527, RightChange.com. Other conservative megadonors include Texas businessman Harold Simmons, who gave $2.9 million to American Issues Project, and retired physician John Templeton Jr., who gave at least $2.7 million to Let Freedom Ring.

    In contrast, a few conservative political action committees were able to raise remarkable sums via strictly regulated small donations. The National Republican Trust, for example, reported spending an incredible $6.6 million on the election, despite being founded in September.

    Now, shifting to congressional races....

    Continue reading "Ad-ing It All Up" »

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    • Nov. 7, 2008

    Fat Lady Hasn't Sung In Georgia

    And you thought you were done with political ads on TV. Well, not if you're in Georgia.

    Because Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) seems stuck below the 50-percent mark in Tuesday's balloting, the race under state law seems destined for a December run-off. Freedom's Watch doesn't have much going on these days, and it isn't wasting any time.

    The group -- which, depending on how you see it, either failed to fend off Democratic takeovers in Congress or succeeded in preventing worse Republican losses -- has a new ad trashing Jim Martin, the Democrat challenging Chambliss.

    "Jim Martin says he's a champion of lower taxes," the ad says. "I guess that must have been another Jim Martin who criticized a $100 million tax cut plan for Georgia families...His evil twin maybe? Or just the same old tax-and-spend Martin policies."

    Both candidates also bought air time for their own ads. And so it continues...

    -- Will Evans

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    Nov. 7, 2008

    What They Don't Want You To Know

    Now that it's over, we can look back and ponder which independent groups might have had an impact on the election, which attack ads left a mark, and who might have blown millions of dollars.

    But there's at least one group that doesn't want us to know anything. It's in court, suing to strike down the disclosure requirements that tell us who runs ads near an election, how much gets spent and, sometimes, who puts up the cash.

    The Committee for Truth in Politics was launched by a North Carolina Republican operative in late September, and spent $1.2 million on anti-Obama ads. Here's one that criticized Obama's abortion stance and another that falsely accused him of supporting early release for sex offenders

    The ads aired in the midst of the general election campaign, but the committee hasn't reported anything about them. We know only because we subscribe to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which has developed a sophisticated system to track ads on TV and estimates how much they cost.

    The committee, represented by Republican lawyer extraordinaire James Bopp, argues it shouldn't have to reveal a thing. Bopp has sued the Federal Election Commission, arguing that what the group spends on ads is none of the government's, or the public's, business.

    "We believe that the U.S. Constitution protects them from having to file that report," says Bopp. "The problem is having to file a report at all. To be regulated at all. To be accountable to the government at all."

    Bopp is building on his success in a Supreme Court case last year that struck down a critical campaign finance regulation. We delve into the legal logic after the jump...

    Continue reading "What They Don't Want You To Know" »

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    Nov. 4, 2008

    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" »

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    Nov. 4, 2008

    And They Keep Coming

    Independent groups are vying to get in the last word before the election's over, so we'll try too. Here's a litte potpourri of last-minute efforts...

    And it doesn't get more last-minute than this: Vets for Freedom just busted out with a TV ad today, airing in Pennsylvania and Ohio, channeling some veterans' anger at Obama. The ad (below) starts out talking about Dwight Eisenhower and some letters he wrote and how Obama only wrote one letter, except that's a metaphor...but the real message is that Obama only saw failure in the courageous efforts of Iraq War veterans. It ends with a spoof of one of Obama's slogans, saying, "Can we win our war? Yes we can."

    Meanwhle, RightChange.com picked up a star of Republican Big Money: Bob Perry, the mega-donor who gave millions to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004. Perry gave $100,000 to RightChange's campaign against Obama and in defense of Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC). It's somehow reasuring to know that Perry isn't slacking off this election season.

    Progressive Future, which we already profiled, put up an anti-McCain ad on cable that's more about mood than message. It shows images of people struggling with the economic downturn set to Paul Simon singing, "I don't know a soul who's not been battered..." When Simon gets to the lyrics, "I wonder what's gone wrong," the ad ends up on a Bush-McCain hug.

    Guns and abortion -- with a special appearance by Chuck Norris -- after the jump...

    Continue reading "And They Keep Coming" »

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    Nov. 4, 2008

    The Union Of Politics And Telemarketing -- What's Not To Like?

    Robocalls -- those recorded, automatically dailed phone messages -- have been lighting up phones everywhere the past few days. Nobody seems to like getting them. Some are innocuous -- the standard fare of campaigns and candidates. But then there are underhanded, unaccountable calls meant to confuse voters.

    For example, calls have been going out into Virginia and Pennsylvania telling people to vote tomorrow, on Nov. 5, according to Jonah Goldman, director of Election Protection at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. Goldman says he doesn't know who's responsible, but similar misleading messages are being distributed via email, FaceBook and flyers, often targeting young and minority voters.

    A third kind of robocall comes from independent groups trying to influence your vote. The Republican Jewish Coalition, for example, is sending anti-Obama robocalls to Jewish voters. The call quotes Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) saying that Obama lacked the "political courage" to leave Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church. The RJC labels the United Church of Christ congregation "anti-Semitic" and "anti-American." The call hammers home the point with this: "If Obama doesn't have the courage to do the right thing here at home, can he stand up to dictators and tyrants who seek to do us harm? We should all be concerned about Barack Obama."

    The National Political Do Not Call Registry tracks all sorts of robocalls -- and lets you report them.

    Christina Perkins, of eastern Virginia, told us she got her first robocall last week, and was a bit taken aback. The call, she says, started out asking if she is a registered voter, without identifying who wanted to know. The second question, "Are you pro-life?" struck Perkins as "sort of out of left field."

    She answered, "No," to which the robocall replied by saying that Obama would "raise your taxes by almost $3,000." Does that change your mind about Obama, the call asked? Perkins said, "No," and the message concluded by saying the group that sponsored it was in support of John McCain.

    Perkins couldn't remember the exact name of the group, but we traced it back to Christian conservative leader, one-time presidential hopeful and former Reagan advisor Gary Bauer.

    Bauer, who heads Americans United to Preserve Marriage and the group American Values, hired ccAdvertising to do the calls in Virginia, said his spokeswoman, Kristi Hamrick. Hamrick said Bauer also ran some get-out-the-vote radio ads in battleground states.

    Hamrick said she wasn't sure which Bauer organization paid for the robocalls But it appears to be Americans United to Preserve Marriage. Let's check out the group's funding after the jump...

    Continue reading "The Union Of Politics And Telemarketing -- What's Not To Like?" »

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    Nov. 3, 2008

    Advancing Wisconsin With National Money

    With all the new groups that we've seen shoveling money into high-profile TV and radio ads, it's easy to overlook the outfits working to influence the election while staying below the radar.

    Advancing Wisconsin is one of those low-visibility operations, and it's getting bankrolled by national pro-Democrat groups. A 501(c)(4) formed in May, the group does phone calls, mailers and door-to-door canvassing to help elect Obama. It spent $435,000 in the last week and $1.9 million this election season, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

    Mike Tate, the executive director, knows that many groups like his fade away after the eleciton. But his fellow organizers are determined to form a "permanent grassroots field-organizing infrastructure in Wisconsin," he says. In the future, the group plans to advocate around the state budget and state supreme court races.

    This idea of an eternal, localized political structure is a hot one among Democrats and liberals. Similar organizations exist in several other states, and big donors are looking kindly on them.

    How kindly? We talk money after the jump...

    Continue reading "Advancing Wisconsin With National Money" »

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    Nov. 3, 2008

    Blue Ads In Red Territory

    Eugene Hedlund acknowledges that when Hollywood and New York filmmakers prepare political ads to target Middle America, they can spark a "backlash." So the self-described former Republican voter's political action committee, TruthandHope.org, teamed up with Hollywood and New York filmmakers to let Middle America speak for itself.

    The PAC, founded to support Democrat Howard Dean in his unsucessful 2004 presidential campaign, is running a series of ads spotlighting Obama supporters in solid Republican country -- all of them ordinary folks speaking straight to the camera. Each ad runs in the area where it was shot-- a strategy that produces its own kind of backlash, with the Obama advocates taking heat from their neighbors.

    Several ads in southeast Missouri focus on Darrell Hanschen, who runs a small pharmacy in Jackson, MO. He talks about health care ("Let's get somebody in there who cares about someone who walks the street of Jackson") and taxes ("Joe the Plumber
    makes more money than any plumber that I know of"). Here, he talks about a friend who's weighing whether to vote for "the black guy."

    Hedlund says one of the doctors in town said he'd never give Hanschen any more business. "These guys have stepped out in red areas, but we're trying to circle the wagons to give 'em some support," said Hedlund. Whenever someone like the pharmacist has a problem, Hedlund sends out an alert to his fundraising list, and supporters send messages of solidarity or sometimes even offer financial support, Hedlund said.

    Hedlund is a California mortgage banker who says he supported John McCain in the 2000 primaries and George Bush in the general election that year. The ad buys are all pretty small, but they add up to about $110,000 in all.

    In other ads: 81-year-old World War II vet Jack Moore of Nixa, MO, shows off his gun collection and says, "No way will Obama take my guns away." Dana Snodgrass, a small business owner in Joplin, MO, says, "I don't think George Bush and Republican Party truly care about the common people." A guy who repairs rock-crushing equipment in Nevada says, "We've already had the guy we'd like to have a beer with... What we need now is the smartest guy." And a veteran in Columbus, OH, says he voted for McCain in 2000, but "I wouldn't do that today."

    -- Will Evans

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    Nov. 3, 2008

    Big Bucks Let Freedom Ring

    We know that Let Freedom Ring is one of the most active anti-Obama organizations this election. It's spending millions of dollars on a seemingly infinite supply of new ads.

    And now we know who's bankrolling the massive effort.

    Benefactor number one is John Templeton Jr., who is also chairman of Let Freedom Ring. He plunked down $2.7 million so far. He may have given more, for activities the group doesn't have to report.

    Templeton, whose father was a famous investor, was a co-chair of the faith and values steering committee of unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. A born-again Christian, he's also one of the biggest donors to a ballot initiative in California this year that would ban same-sex marriage; he and his wife gave $1.2 million.

    Some of Templeton's other gifts this year: $776,000 to the College Republican National Committee, $550,000 to the Republican State Leadership Committee and $200,000 to the Club for Growth.

    Let Freedom Ring also received $500,000 in September from Virginia James aka Virginia Manheimer, a school voucher activist and donor. James is also a co-founder of the Club for Growth, which she gave $700,000 this year.

    "Smaller" donors to Let Freedom Ring include Foster Friess and Nathan Bachman, who each gave $100,000. Friess is a sucessful Wyoming investor who formerly served as president of the Council for National Policy, an umbrella group for the religious right. Friess explains his opposition to Obama via YouTube. Bachman is an Ohio investor who gave $10,000 to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004.

    And here, below, is a sample of what that money buys: an emotional "Best Of" compendium of conservative complaints against Obama: Rev. Wright; Bill Ayres; Tony Rezko; "clinging" to guns and religion; contributions from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae; ACORN; and taxes and spending. Let Freedom Ring put up the ad on TV this weekend.

    -- Will Evans

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    Nov. 3, 2008

    "The Culture Of Death" And Other Last-Minute Volleys

    With the campaign din becoming ever more shrill in these last hours, opponents of Barack Obama are hoping an anti-abortion message can cut through to sympathetic voters.

    The National Pro-Life Alliance put up this ad in New Mexico, targeting both Obama and the Democratic candidate for Senate, Rep. Tom Udall. The ad recounts an incident in which two teenagers dumped their newborn baby in a Dumpster. It occurred 12 years ago in Delaware. The urgently delivered voiceover likens it to partial-birth abortion, and notes that Udall and Obama "voted to continue this grisly procedure." The group used identical language in Senate ads as far back as 2000.

    The Virginia-based alliance started in 1993 partially in response to the election of Bill Clinton, and now has 600,000 members, said its president Martin Fox, a Catholic priest in Ohio. The group is currently pushing legislation that would overturn Roe v. Wade.

    Common Sense Issues, which pushed for Mike Huckabee during the Republican primaries and then backed out of the presidential race, recently jumped back in with an ad attacking Obama on abortion.

    Running in the newly competitive states of North Dakota and Montana, the ad shows footage of Obama saying that the question of when a fetus gets human rights is "above my pay grade." That line has become one of Obama's biggest faux pas, seized upon by pro-life activists. The ad includes an interview with Bernard Nathanson, a former abortion doctor and founding member of what is now NARAL Pro-Choice America, who became an outspoken anti-abortion activist in the 1970s. He calls legalized abortion "the greatest mistake this nation has ever conceived."

    Tying Obama to the "culture of death," after the jump...

    Continue reading ""The Culture Of Death" And Other Last-Minute Volleys" »

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    About 'The Secret Money Project'

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