Controversial Pro-Business Group Targets Dems
Americans for Job Security -- a pro-business advocacy organization with a long record of running election-season ads without disclosing donors -- is targeting Democratic Senate candidates in three key races with negative radio messages.
One ad blames Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) for rampant "pork-barrel spending," and accuses her of trading an earmark for campaign contributions. Another says that Minnesota Senate candidate Al Franken's economic plan "reads like a bad joke." Yet another warns that New Hampshire Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen is all about taxes, taxes, taxes.
The ads cost nearly $300,000 in all, according to recent filings. Listen to them here.
The organization's president, Stephen DeMaura, is no stranger to New Hampshire politics. Until recently, he was executive director of the NH Republican Party.
And the group itself is no stranger to complaints. Last year, the liberal group Public Citizen called on the Internal Revenue Service to revoke AJS's tax status. And a previous anti-Shaheen ad drew a formal complaint by the NH Democratic Party to the Federal Election Commission.
AJS started in the 1990s with funding from the American Insurance Association and the American Forest and Paper Association, but neither we nor anyone else (besides the group) know where it's gotten money recently.
-- Will Evans
10:23 AM ET | 09-15-2008 | permalink
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