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Ads from 527s aim to divide, conquer

By Christina Bellantoni (Contact) | Wednesday, September 17, 2008

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Initially pushed to the sidelines by the presidential nominees, independent political groups are readying a 24/7 barrage of attack ads designed to influence Americans' choices at the ballot box in November.

The tax-exempt political groups known as 527s will use negative ads to remind voters about Sen. Barack Obama's controversial former pastor, and to suggest that Sen. John McCain's temperament makes him a frightening choice to have his "finger near the red button."

Both presidential hopefuls once derided these independent groups - named for their section of the tax code and limited to few campaign-finance restrictions - and so they remained mostly dormant for months.

But as the campaign heats up, 527s and other political action committees from across the political spectrum are planning major pushes to influence voters in the final six weeks of the campaign.

"We have to spread the truth about McCain ourselves because it's clear the corporate media won't," reads the description on a YouTube ad from BraveNewPac. In capital letters, it adds, "Now. Fast. Furious. Everywhere."

The group, an offshoot of liberal filmmaker Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films, has paid for a television spot featuring a former prisoner of war portraying Mr. McCain as emotionally disturbed. Philip Butler says he knows Mr. McCain and adds that the prisoner of war experience is "not a good prerequisite" for the presidency.

"He was well known as a very volatile guy, and he would blow up and go off like a Roman candle," says Mr. Butler, who also was imprisoned in Vietnam. "John McCain is not somebody that I would like to see with his finger near the red button."

Meanwhile, some people involved with the group that damaged Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004 - the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - have targeted Mr. Obama under the name American Issues Project.

"I don't think the public cares how you characterize who is making an ad or who is behind it. I think they care about the substance of the ad," said Ed Martin, a St. Louis lawyer who has long worked on behalf of Republicans.

"Do you really know enough about what this guy is about?" he said of the Illinois Democrat. "What I know about his background is worrisome."