The swift boats are sailing again.
But as The New York Times reported yesterday, they may be traveling on smaller waters.
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Some negative television ads sponsored by political action groups aren’t trying to reach national audiences, reporter Jim Rutenberg writes.
Rather, they’re running in small, targeted markets in battleground states in the belief that a small swing in voter preference can affect the outcome of this year’s presidential race.
This is especially clear in Michigan, a state that’s up for grabs.
Freedom’s Defense Fund, a conservative political-action group not connected to the campaign of Republican Sen. John McCain, has launched a series of ads attacking Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate.
The ads are appearing on cable stations in Macomb County, an area northeast of Detroit, and are targeted at “white, unionized auto workers,” the Times reports.
The two ads that have aired show Obama with controversial “friends,” his former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and the former mayor of Detroit, Kwame M. Kilpatrick.
The fact that the ads place Obama, an African-American, with two figures who are also African-American, has led Democrats to charge that the Freedom’s Defense Fund is attempting to exploit racial attitudes. Officials of the fund deny this charge.
While the fund may have changed some of its tactics for this campaign, a review of the group’s funding and staffing reveals some familiar players.
Billionaire Roger Milliken has contributed at least $15,000 to the fund since it started in 2004.
Ninety-one-years old, Milliken is the CEO and chairman of Milliken & Company, a South Carolina textile and chemical manufacturing concern.
He has given tens of thousands of dollars to conservative political candidates and groups over the years.
A long-time opponent of free trade and illegal immigration, Milliken this year backed California Congressman Duncan Hunter’s unsuccessful campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
He also contributed to the campaigns of congressmen Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo.
In 1996, Milliken served as an adviser to the presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan. The campaign treasurer was Scott B. Mackenzie, who had earlier worked on the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan.
The two men are now linked at the Freedom’s Defense Fund, Milliken as contributor and Mackenzie as treasurer.
Mackenzie also serves as the treasurer of the Black Republican Freedom Fund, another PAC.
And he’s listed as a staff member at BMW Direct Inc., a fund-raising consultant for conservative candidates and groups.
Michael Centanni, the chief operating officer of BMW Direct, is the chairman of Freedom’s Defense Fund.
The Times reports that subsequent advertisements by the fund will link Obama to Antoin Rezko, a Chicago real estate developer convicted on bribery charges; William Ayers, the former Weather Underground member; and Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister.
Jerome S. Corsi, author of the anti-Obama biography Obama Nation is a paid consultant for the Freedom’s Defense Fund.