Who is this "Americans for Job Security" thats been running these anti-Dem ads all over the place?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Job_Security

Americans for Job Security (AJS) is a Republican "sham front group that would be better called Corporations Influencing Elections ... masquerading as a non-profit to conceal its funders and the scope of its electioneering activities," the Center for Responsive Politics wrote in April 2007. Incorporated October 1997 in Virginia, AJS was described by the Center as "pro-Republican", "pro-business", and "established to directly counter labor's influence".

The Center also reported that, in 1998, AJS "pledged to raise and spend $100 million on issue ads over the next five years."

It is alleged that AJS was founded by Marc F. Racicot "with a $1 million donation" from the American Insurance Association. Racicot headed George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign and is a former Republican National Committee chairman. In June 2005, Racicot coincidentally became the new head of the American Insurance Association, which "represents 435 major property and casualty insurance companies."

Funding

AJS has "steadfastly refused to disclose its contributors. The group’s explanation underlines why disclosure of funding sources of grassroots lobbying campaigns is needed: AJS President Mike Dubke has said that such disclosure would distract from the group’s message," Public Citizen wrote in a January 2007 report on astroturf groups. AJS "has a history of injecting itself into Congressional campaigns," Carl Hulse wrote July 14, 2002, in the New York Times, and "was apparently used solely as a conduit to hide corporate political spending and insulate companies from accountability," a May 2006 report by the Center for Political Accountability stated.

Republican affiliations

[gratuitous]

1. You bet their message would be diluted

Once folks knew who was funding this scurrilous bullshit, it'd be that much easier to dismiss.

[hfojvt]

2. I have no idea. I never heard of them.

I do wonder what puts the race in Racicot?

[lxlxlxl]

3. When Obama raises money for ads he is "buying" votes, when shadowy groups do it -- no problem

I still can't believe Boone Pickens was able to buy energy security credibility with his ads, and oh what, guess who's ditched his whole program.

The oil / clean coal gas people have ads running on CNN nonstop also.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Did Nose Pickens ditch his whole program?

I didn't hear that.

Don