Thursday, May 31, 2012

FOLLOWING MONEY IN ARIZONA'S POLITICS: GOP-philic SuperPACs Continue Campaigning Against Ron Barber In Special Election

American Crossroads and American Action Network, two leading Republican-philic SuperPACs, continued their independent expenditure campaigns opposing Ron Barber this week.  Election day in the Special Election to replace retired-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is June 12, and early ballots are being cast at high rates.

And, while groups spending money on independent expenditures are forbidden from coordinating with a candidate, they are permitted to coordinate with each other.  And, these groups that used to share the same office space, appear to be doing just that.  One is working the mailers while the other concentrates on calling prospective voters.

American Crossroads - the well-funded organization pounding Democrats across the country founded by Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie - has spent $100,000 ($99,252, to be exact) in the past 8 days on three rounds of mailers.  Two were opposing Barber - a former District Director for Giffords; the one that went out yesterday was supporting Republican nominee Jesse Kelly.

Meanwhile, American Action Network, led by former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, has been working the phones calling early voters with messages opposing Barber.  It made two payments of more than $12,000 each this past week.

If you have copies of any of the mailers and/or recordings of the phone calls, please forward them to Arizona's Politics - we have produced Fact Checks on ads put out by groups on either side of this election.

We welcome your comments about this post. Or, if you have something unrelated on your mind, please e-mail to info-at-arizonaspolitics-dot-com or call 602-799-7025. Thanks.

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