Swift Boaters Start Your Engines
If Obama is hit with an attack ad fusillade, this secretive GOP operative will likely be behind the onslaught.
Stephanie Mencimer
Mother Jones
October 02, 2008
By this time in the 2004 election, John Kerry was already drowning in attack ads hurled at him from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. But this year, outside groups funded by millionaires or billionaires have been relatively dormant—thus far. As Election Day approaches such outfits are gearing up, and they appear to be biding their time until the final days of the campaign, when they can inflict the most damage. One of those groups is American Issues Project (AIP), which has been funded almost entirely by a single Texas billionaire and involves many of the leading players from the Swift Boat campaign. In August, it aired an ad attempting to highlight ties between Barack Obama and William Ayers, the 1960s radical who participated in at least several domestic bombings. The ad didn't land with Swift Boat-like power, but it signaled the opening salvo of what could be a nasty conclusion to this year's campaign.
The man behind AIP, Tony Feather, could become one of the most significant players in the election. Feather, a longtime Republican operative, is not a household name and he rarely talks to the media. But his specialty—mounting stealth political advocacy campaigns—has played an outsized role in the last two presidential elections. Should Obama end up confronting a Swift Boat-style fusillade in the closing weeks of this campaign, the odds are that Feather will be one of the ops responsible for the onslaught.
A former executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, Feather is known for his fierce campaign tactics on behalf of candidates like John Ashcroft and former Missouri Attorney General Bill Webster. Feather ran Webster’s 1992 campaign for governor; Webster not only lost but went to prison on charges related to misusing his office for campaign purposes. Feather is also a compatriot of Karl Rove, whom he first met in 1974. The two are close enough that Rove at one point endorsed Feather's consulting firm on its website.
Politics has also made Feather a rich man. He started a handful of companies that specialize in "microtargeting" voters with direct mail, phone, and grassroots lobbying for GOP campaigns and big corporate clients. One of his companies sets up fake grassroots groups to give the appearance of public support for corporate legislative efforts. In 1999, Feather founded Feather Larson Synhorst with another GOP operative, Tom Synhorst, who is sometimes referred to as the "Johnny Appleseed of Astroturf."
(Continued here.)
Stephanie Mencimer
Mother Jones
October 02, 2008
By this time in the 2004 election, John Kerry was already drowning in attack ads hurled at him from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. But this year, outside groups funded by millionaires or billionaires have been relatively dormant—thus far. As Election Day approaches such outfits are gearing up, and they appear to be biding their time until the final days of the campaign, when they can inflict the most damage. One of those groups is American Issues Project (AIP), which has been funded almost entirely by a single Texas billionaire and involves many of the leading players from the Swift Boat campaign. In August, it aired an ad attempting to highlight ties between Barack Obama and William Ayers, the 1960s radical who participated in at least several domestic bombings. The ad didn't land with Swift Boat-like power, but it signaled the opening salvo of what could be a nasty conclusion to this year's campaign.
The man behind AIP, Tony Feather, could become one of the most significant players in the election. Feather, a longtime Republican operative, is not a household name and he rarely talks to the media. But his specialty—mounting stealth political advocacy campaigns—has played an outsized role in the last two presidential elections. Should Obama end up confronting a Swift Boat-style fusillade in the closing weeks of this campaign, the odds are that Feather will be one of the ops responsible for the onslaught.
A former executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, Feather is known for his fierce campaign tactics on behalf of candidates like John Ashcroft and former Missouri Attorney General Bill Webster. Feather ran Webster’s 1992 campaign for governor; Webster not only lost but went to prison on charges related to misusing his office for campaign purposes. Feather is also a compatriot of Karl Rove, whom he first met in 1974. The two are close enough that Rove at one point endorsed Feather's consulting firm on its website.
Politics has also made Feather a rich man. He started a handful of companies that specialize in "microtargeting" voters with direct mail, phone, and grassroots lobbying for GOP campaigns and big corporate clients. One of his companies sets up fake grassroots groups to give the appearance of public support for corporate legislative efforts. In 1999, Feather founded Feather Larson Synhorst with another GOP operative, Tom Synhorst, who is sometimes referred to as the "Johnny Appleseed of Astroturf."
(Continued here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home