Posted on 09/21/2007 9:45:01 PM PDT by neverdem
The political arm of MoveOn.org is spending far more money attacking Republicans than on behalf of the Democrats it supports, campaign filings show.
Since last year, Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show the group has spent nearly 90 percent of more than $3 million in so-called independent expenditures to target a dozen Republican candidates, including presidential aspirants Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City, and Arizona Sen. John McCain.
"The political and practical reality is that negative ads work, and they work better than positive ads," said Kenneth A. Gross, former associate general counsel for the FEC.
"That's particularly true of an independent group because candidates themselves don't want to be running negative ads if they can avoid it," Mr. Gross said. "They'd rather be taking the high road, and the independent groups can hit a little harder"
MoveOn's negative campaigning prompted criticism from Republicans and some Democrats after a recent ad in the New York Times called Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, "General Betray Us."
According to FEC records, MoveOn has spent less than $400,000 in independent expenditures supporting approximately 60 Democratic office seekers since last year. But during the same period, the group spent about $2.7 million against Republicans.
The law defines independent expenditures as money spent expressly for or against a candidate, but not in concert with the office seekers or their campaigns.
In one race last year, MoveOn, which did not return messages, spent more than a half-million dollars in independent expenditures against Rep. Thelma Drake, Virginia Republican. But the group spent less than $10,000 supporting her unsuccessful Democratic challenger.
In another contest, MoveOn spent more than $440,000 against then-Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, Connecticut Republican, including ads that also targeted Republican incumbents in other contests. The group...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Do I gotta say it ?
Ha ha, that was just before I left VA Beach. Cox Cable ran the ads for a little while and then refused to anymore. And Drake still won.
That's no surprise. Everybody already knows the positive side of the Democrats' message: "I'm for sodomy, treason, higher taxes, and killing babies."
LOL!
Arizona Sen. John McCain deserves every cent these clean campaign finance spenders throw against him.
This is hardly an independent group.
Technically an 'independent group' is one not controlled by a political party or election campaign. This is true, MoveOn is not controlled by the Dems, it CONTROLS the Dems.
And this is a surprise because....?
Semantics
...and the only people surprised are our media....
Since last year, Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show the group has spent nearly 90 percent of more than $3 million in so-called independent expenditures to target a dozen Republican candidates, including presidential aspirants Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City, and Arizona Sen. John McCain.They are doing us a favor if they are going after Ruby Julie-Annie...
You forgot illegals and taking guns... maybe they are giving money to Julie-Annie...
This article gets my vote for Duh of the Day.
I don't know and apparently no one at FR does either. All I know is that is some kind of power!
that wd be a great tag line, Mabey Carvell wd use it for the bumper sticker slogan hes looking for
I have a new tag line.....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.