Money Flows Into Anti-Wellstone Campaign - 2002-10-24

Money Flows Into Anti-Wellstone Campaign October 24, 2002, John Nichols, The Nation

---

But that doesn't mean Wellstone is sure to beat Bush, er, Coleman.After the poll results were released, a shadowy Virginia group that campaign finance analysts have linked to the Bush family and George W. Bush's 2000 campaign — as well as to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and the Republican Party — made a record-breaking $1 million purchase of television and radio advertising time to attack Wellstone.

The deceptively named group Americans For Job Security is behind the big buy — which will likely exceed the amount of money the Wellstone campaign or the Democratic Party will spend in the final weeks before the election. Headquarted in Alexandria, Virginia, Americans for Security first came on the scene five years ago, when it got started with a $1 million contribution from the American Insurance Association. The American Forest and Paper Association chipped in another $1 million.

Described by the The Annenberg Public Policy Center as a "a tax-exempt conservative, business-backed pro-Republican organization formed in October 1997 to lobby for: reduced taxes, less government regulation, free trade, and downsizing government," it has been linked with a previous initiative by the US Chamber of Commerce and business lobbies that spent $5 million in the 1996 election cycle.

In May, 2000, a Washington Post report raised the prospect that Trent Lott was pressuring high-tech lobbyists for contributions to the organization, which that year launched television advertising campaigns attacking the Democratic challengers to several vulnerable Republican senators. (Among the corporations reported to have contributed to Americans for Job Security following that meeting was Microsoft. More recently, pharmaceutical firms have been reported to be prime funders of the group.)

Wikipedia cite:

{{cite news | first = John | last = Nichols | title = Money Flows Into Anti-Wellstone Campaign | url = https://www.thenation.com/article/money-flows-anti-wellstone-campaign/ | work = The Nation | date = October 24, 2002 | accessdate = October 30, 2019 }}