Rise of a new political beast of burden : The "unaffiliated" political promoter
It seems republicans have hatched a new kind of avertising political consultant : the "non-affiliaited" political advertiser. That's the kind of (usually) guy that manages to be throw away hundreds of thousands of dollars in "unaffiliated" advertising for the candidates of their choice.
First example up : Bob J. Perry liked so much his swiftboating of John Kerry that he is at it again:
A new television commercial that targets Democratic Senate ca didate Ned Lamont as a "tax-hiking liberal" is being aired by a tax-exempt adv cacy group funded by a major Republican donor from Texas who worked with White House political guru.
That funder, Bob J. Perry, also was the chief financial backer of Swift Boat Vets and POWs for Truth, another tax-exempt organization that attacked the reputation of U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts in the 2004 presidential election.
Lest you dismiss this as an opportunity for the guy to bask in the Lamont glow, it seems he is targetting candidates supported by DailyKos : the guy is also throwing money for advertising against Patricia Madrid, who is in a tight race against the republican incumbent for New Mexico's CD-1, Heather Wilson.
Meanwhile Capitol Annex is reporting that in Michigan, a little known doctor by the name Andrew Messenger is spreading the wealth much in the same way:
Messenger’s expenditures raise a number of questions including why the heretofore unknown retired doctor is plucking down such a significant amount of cash in Paul’s district. Also, the manner in which Messenger’s ad buy was made raises further questions about whether or not the expenditures were truly unknown to the Paul campaign before they were made.
The ads were placed using a Maryland political consulting and communications firm, Jay Bryant Communications Consluting. Jay Bryant and his company have done work for Paul previously, having managed media buys and consulted for the campaign in 2002 [Disbursment page including Bryant expenditure from Paul report [http://www.capitolannex.com/misc/BRYANT.gif|here]].
According to records obtained by Capitol Annex, Bryant and his company placed the ads for Messenger and received a commission-discounted price.
Efforts to locate a telephone number for Bryant were unsuccessful.
The connection between an unknown Michigan physician and Bryant are unknown. It seems more than odd that the physician would select Bryant’s firm by chance, given that it has done work for Paul’s campaigns in the past.
 Still people dare to claim bloggers are the perfect loophole for "unclaimed" campaign contributions.Â
 Feh.Â
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Advertising | Business | Ethics | Marketing | Political Consultants | Politics | Campaign Finance Rules | Elections 2006 | Republicans
you know, i wish i could say i agree with you
Submitted by liza on 18 October 2006 - 9:22am.
but given how conservative some of the candidates are, i gotta wonder. i mean, c'mon, we have Mary Landrieu in the Democratic party, a woman who has one of the worse pro-choice records in the senate.
sincerely, as i have never been too keen about drinking of the liberal kool-aid, i am being cautious about this "take back congress" optimism.
yes, having more democrats will be good. a country deserves the candidates they elect. there's so many democrat switchers being pushed as "good democrats", that it makes me wary. if people in the netroots honestly believe that getting conservative democrats will somehow bring balance, a have a bridge i want to sell you.
we need more than seats. we need progressives who can inspire a cultural shift in the way we pass legislation and do politics in this country. where are they because, i ain't seeing them.
Flip flop my way to the Voting Booth
I think the best thing that could happen for all involved is that the Democrats take back the House and Senate. We then get a balance of power. This might even help Bush by tempering his actions and maybe helping to start the long road to undoing all the bad he has done to our country.