Swifboater covertly funds attack ads of MN dem governor candidate (and he lost)

[mnmoderatedem]

A Houston homebuilder who helped finance the Swift Boat veterans campaign against former presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 was the primary bankroller of a Minnesota group that ran a harsh advertising blitz against Mike Hatch, the unsuccessful DFL candidate for governor this fall.

A spokesman for the group, the Minnesota chapter of A Stronger America, said Tuesday that Bob Perry contributed two-thirds of the $750,000 that was spent on TV ads and direct mail.

<snip>

Weber said the infusion of Texas cash came about three weeks before the Nov. 7 election. That timing allowed the group to avoid reporting the contributions before the election.

<snip>

There were other connections between that Swift Boat campaign and the efforts against Hatch. A Stronger America-Minnesota is registered in Minnesota with an Alexandria, Va., address. Hatch said before the election that he discovered that an insurance-industry backed group, Americans for Job Security, shared the same address.

The attorney for Americans for Job Security is Benjamin Ginsberg, who was the attorney for the 2004 Bush campaign and for the Swift Boat Veterans.


http://www.startribune.com/587/story/886589.html

[Mikey929]

1. wow

Think of all the good things that could have been done with that money. What a waste.

[mnmoderatedem]

2. more to the point

it underscores how the SBVFT were far more ideologically driven and ther attacks on Kerry were politically motivated, and had nothing to do with issues ragarding Kerry's service.

Why Kerry never stood up to those transparent attacks I'll never be able to figure out. May very well have cost him the election.

[Bitwit1234]

3. They needed Minnesota

Remember...they are having the convention in Minneapolis...what would they do with a democratic governor...I guess that the people in Minnesota should organize the biggest damn protest about swift boating at the convention this bunch of republicans ever saw...give them good old Minnesota PROTEST.

[Pierre.Suave]

4. 2/3rds is...

$495,000

thats a lot of money.