From Today's Post. Looks like we're nominating the Saxby Chambliss of Massachusetts to be our nominee. What could be dirtier politics than getting Torricelli to fund this thing from his "campaign funds." Unbelievable.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30484-2004Feb10.html
Kerry Fundraiser Helped Finance Anti-Dean Ads
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 11, 2004; Page A16
Former senator Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.), who is raising money for Democratic presidential front-runner John F. Kerry, contributed $50,000 to a secretive group that ran hard-hitting television ads against Howard Dean in December, a new Federal Election Commission filing shows.
Torricelli, who was formally rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee two years ago for his relationship with a top political contributor to his campaigns, last week attended a fundraising meeting with the presidential front-runner.
In November of last year, Torricelli transferred $50,000 from his Senate campaign to Americans for Jobs & Healthcare, a little-known group that this winter ran more than $500,000 in ads against Dean, then the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. The ads sharply criticized Dean's support of gun rights, free trade and slowing Medicare's growth when he was governor of Vermont. The most controversial ad raised the image of Osama bin Laden and questioned Dean's foreign policy experience.
Kerry went on to win the Iowa caucuses. Torricelli's role in financing the ads was first reported by the Web site PoliticsNJ.com. David Jones, executive director of the group, last night released the entire list of contributors, which showed that the "stop Dean" effort had support from donors to rivals of the former Vermont governor, especially Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) and Kerry.
Several unions then aligned with Gephardt pitched in, as did one of retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark's top fundraisers, Alan Patricof. Bernard Schwartz, chairman of Loral Corp., gave $15,000. Slim-Fast Foods tycoon S. Daniel Abraham contributed $100,000 to the effort after giving Dean $2,000 earlier in the campaign. Another small donor to the group had also contributed to Dean.
"Our goal was to point out where Howard Dean stood on the issues and point out that he had no foreign policy experience," Jones said. "Clearly those goals were accomplished."
Jones said the group spent less than $15,000 on the bin Laden ad. He said it is unclear whether the group will run any more ads this election cycle.
At the time the ads were running, the group refused to reveal its donors, though a few labor unions acknowledged helping to fund the effort. The group's spokesman was Robert Gibbs, who had left the Kerry campaign shortly before. Gibbs no longer works for the organization.
Chad Clanton, a Kerry spokesman, said the senator from Massachusetts and his staff have had no contact with the group and were unaware of Torricelli's involvement. "I am told no one knew anything about it," Clanton said.
Jones, the group's leader, was a longtime political adviser to Gephardt, who dropped out of the race after losing Iowa and endorsed Kerry last week. Torricelli yesterday referred phone calls to Jones, who said he solicited the money from the former New Jersey senator. Jones said there was never any coordination with any of the presidential candidates.
A top Democratic strategist said the group was widely viewed as a shadow campaign for Gephardt and Kerry, who shared a goal then of derailing Dean.
Kerry's affiliation with Torricelli -- and now his indirect link to Americans for Jobs & Healthcare -- could cause political problems for the front-runner, Democrats said. Kerry has made his fight against special interests a centerpiece of his campaign, and Republicans and Democrats are highlighting Torricelli's involvement in the Kerry campaign to undercut that message.
Dean communications director Tricia Enright circulated news of the Torricelli contribution with the attached message: "This is unbelievable. The torch, the king of the special interests." Torricelli's nickname is "Torch." The Republican National Committee last night sent around its own e-mail titled "Sen. John Kerry hypocrisy." In it, the RNC states: "Disgraced Ex-Senator Bob Torricelli Raising Money For Cash And Kerry."
The Senate Ethics Committee sent a letter to Torricelli in July 2002 that "severely admonished" him for accepting improper gifts from donor David Chang. A federal grand jury investigated the matter; Torricelli was never charged.
Groups such as Americans for Jobs, known in Washington parlance as 527s, are the subject of the latest campaign finance controversy because Republicans are accusing Democrats of using them to circumvent the federal ban on unlimited "soft money" donations from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals.
Now corporations, unions and individuals can contribute as much as they want to such groups, which are prohibited from coordinating with candidates and from running ads in the days leading up a primary and general elections. In truth, both parties are planning 527s to hammer each other with ads and mailings funded by the same soft money reformers had hoped to purge from the system