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Follow us on TwitterDes Moines-based American Future Fund Thursday launched a multi-state television ad campaign, coinciding with the president’s national health care address, hoping to convince conservative Democrats to oppose health care reform legislation.
The American Future Fund has strong ties to the strategists behind the 1988 "Willie Horton" ad and the 2004 "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" ads. (Sources: AmericanFutureFund.com, Wikipedia, SwiftVets.com)
The ads, which focus on comments made about Blue Dog Democrats by U.S. Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., will air in the districts of Reps. Mike Ross, D-Ark., Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and Baron Hill, D-Ind. The ad will also appear on television stations in the Washington, D.C., area.
All three congressmen have voiced concern about Democratic health care proposals, and AFF hopes to reinforce their opposition with their ads, which end with “Tell Congress: No government-run health care.”
American Future Fund is a 501(c)4 non-profit that advocates nationally on behalf of “conservative and free market ideals.” It received a lot of attention during 2008 after it spent millions in congressional and Senate races around the country supporting Republican candidates, mostly unsuccessfully. The group’s communication director told supporters shortly after the November elections that his organization could be the conservative response to the “permanent [President Barack] Obama campaign.”
This year, it has garnered attention by bring several prominent speakers to the Hawkeye State, many of whom had presidential aspirations in 2012. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is scheduled to speak in Iowa on Oct. 1 as part of the group’s lecture series.
This ad campaign will not be the first time the group has had a presence in Minnesota. One of the races it focused on during the 2008 campaign was the Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging AFF violated federal election law by failing to register and report as a political committee. The FEC ruled in AFF’s favor.
