The Command Post - 2004 US Presidential Election - New 527 Ads Reportedly Attack Sharpton, Willie Horton

September 06, 2004

Bush | New 527 Ads Reportedly Attack Sharpton, Willie Horton

The NY Daily News reports that an independent pro-Bush group, “MoveOnForAmerica[, ]led by GOP political consultant Stephen Marks”, is preparing to run two controversial ads. The first targets the Democrats’ embrace of Al Sharpton:

In the Sharpton ad, Kerry is seen shaking hands and embracing the black leader and a narrator asks grimly what role he might have in a Kerry administration.

[snip]

In the Sharpton spot, the narrator accuses Sharpton of blaming the U.S. for the 9/11 attacks, calling Adolf Hitler “a great man,” urging college students to kill cops and indirectly instigating a fatal fire at a Jewish-owned store in Harlem.

Then there’s the second ad:

[I]t invokes the name of Willie Horton, the African-American inmate who raped and tortured a suburban couple while on furlough from a Massachusetts prison.

Note that the Horton-furlough case didn’t happen while Kerry was Dukakis’ Lieutenant Governor. Instead, the ‘hook’ is this:

In the new ad, a narrator says that in 1982, Kerry, as a private attorney, “successfully overturned the conviction of his client George Reissfelder,” who had escaped in ‘74 while on furlough - “just like Willie Horton.”
When Reissfelder was captured three years later, he tried to grab a cop’s gun. The ad says he tried to shoot a police officer and pleaded guilty to that, but didn’t serve his 15-year sentence.

His sentence, however, had nothing to do with the case that Kerry worked on with his law partner, Roanne Sragow, who was the lead attorney.

Sragow had been assigned by a judge to look into Reissfeld’s ‘67 murder conviction - which turned out to be wrongful.

The ad admits he was cleared but calls him a “would-be cop killer,” and points out Kerry was Dukakis’ lieutenant governor.

I’ve got commentary on the ads on my own blog.

Posted by Baseball Crank at September 6, 2004 05:23 PM | TrackBack

Comments

This sounds really dumb. I can understand knocking the Dems’ failure to excorcise Sharpton (who is a disgrace by any standard), but the rest of this sounds like the tin-foil hat crowd.

Posted by: TL at September 6, 2004 07:26 PM

This sounds like something the lefties would do.

Go after Sharpton for being a divisive racist (Tawawna Brawley incident) but trying to tie JFK to Willie Horton is akin to the Swifties/Bush diagram exercise in the NY Times.

I don’t think our standards have fallen that far.

Posted by: ter0 at September 6, 2004 08:16 PM

oh geesh…this is gonna get ugly. If we are in the 60 day period and this kinda thing should be stopping then we can fully expect a legal action about this one and all the Dems pointing at the RNC screaming “LAWBREAKERS!”. RNC (hopefully) has no ties with this group or any 527 for that matter…hope the swingers out there know and understand this.

McCain and Feingold should be taken out behind the woodshed on this one…what have they brought upon this country!?!?!?! Okay…okay…the sky ain’t falling..

Posted by: Wayne Fielder at September 6, 2004 08:24 PM

MoveOn.org.. MoveOnForAmerica.org… same slime, different sides.

Had they stuck to reaming that reacist, Sharpton, fine. But they’ve shown they’re just as bad as the Moonbat Lefties, and counter-productive to the GOP too.

Donning my Tinfoil hat, maybe this is part of a GOP conspiracy to undermine 527s by destroying their reputations. Nauseating in any event.

Posted by: aebrain at September 6, 2004 10:52 PM

Hello this is no “group”. This 527 was covered quite extensively here. I did some basic footwork in hunting references to Stephen Q Marks. I found nothing to substantiate his supposed Republican ties, though he does have a “radio show” on Phoenix’s KFNX…one hour on Sunday nights 10-11 pm.

You can research 527’s through the IRS here since they are all required to fill out form 8871. Now these forms can be filed electronically. This is the information I got after searching “moveonforamerica.org”.

Name: MoveOnForAmerica.Org
EIN: 106503133
Address: 2200 Wilson Boulevard Suite 49
Alexandria, VA 22201
E-Mail: moveonforamerica@.org
Contact: Stephen Q Marks
Custodian: Stephen Q Marks

It is also interesting to note that Marks filed this form Electronically on 9/3/04. You can view his form here (.pdf)

Take a gander at part II of the form. He’s claiming an exemption to filing a

Form 8872, Political Organization Report of Contributions and Expenditures, as a qualified state or local political organization.

What you have is a single individual making himself out as a “group” (and has no intention of taking donations otherwise he’d have to file the 8872 he claims an exemption from) who has put up one singular webpage with a very amatuer “ads” he probably created with a MS movie maker program. Either he is a Moby, or his is interested in making something “controversial” to garner attention just to him.

Posted by: Darleen at September 6, 2004 11:16 PM

I found this at USA Today in a Google search:

“MoveOnForAmerica.org was created due to the Bush campaign’s largely timid attack ads against Mr. Kerry,” its site says.

Created by Republican political consultant Stephen Marks, it is the latest in a spate of “527s,” independent soft-money groups that have sprung up on both sides of the aisle to influence voters.

Marks also worked for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican Governors Association, and served as a press secretary to President Bush’s brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, in his unsuccessful 1994 campaign.

He said his group has already raised $200,000 and aims to surpass $1 million by the election.

“We’ll hopefully be successful like the Swift boat people,” Marks said, referring to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a 527 organization whose ads have questioned Kerry’s service in Vietnam.

Under the new campaign finance law, a ban on political ads by outside groups that mention presidential, House and Senate candidates went into effect on Friday — 60 days before the Nov. 2 election.

But groups are exempt from this ban if they use only donations from individuals and do not receive support from corporations or unions. However, some critics contend that all outside groups should be covered by the law and blame an incorrect interpretation by the Federal Election Commission for creating a loophole.

“The only reason they’re getting away with it is the Federal Election Commission has refused to do its job and enforce the laws,” said Fred Wertheimer, head of the campaign-finance watchdog Democracy 21.

Marks said the choice of the name was “just to get the press’s attention,” not to confuse potential donors.

“We want to kind of do what Moveon.org has done, but on the other side,” Marks said. “We actually admire what they’ve done.”

MoveOn.org did not return calls for comment Friday.

Posted by: TexasGal at September 6, 2004 11:52 PM

Yuck. With friends like that who needs enemies. I as imaginative as the next guy, but I had trouble connecting the dots. Hopefully, the typical reaction to the ads will be, huh? This kind of negative ad does us no good.

Posted by: Rich Blinne at September 7, 2004 12:19 AM

Texas girl

I’ve googled “Stephen Marks” and Jeb Bush..and all I get is a circle jerk of descriptions of Marks as a “Republican consultant and former press secretary for Jeb Bush” but nothing indepently corraborating that!

And he says he’s got $200,000 in donations?? So where the f**k is his 8872 IRS form? Why does he claim he doesn’t need to file one?

I call Moby.

Posted by: Darleen at September 7, 2004 12:23 AM

I concur… this guy, whoever he is, is really sick… I hope the RNC distances themselves as far and as quickly as possible from this crap.

Not only do I think most conservatives think it is bad, it will anger independents even more.

This guy is an idiot! He represents the looney fringe to the right that the left likes to paint as typical for all Republicans.

Posted by: steve at September 7, 2004 12:26 AM

As far as I’m concerned, blame this all on that pathetic puke George Soros. The Dems and leftists take the cake on this one, and really, deserve all that they’ve asked for. If their politcal operatives hadn’t done everything they could to find the 527 loophole, things might be different. Of course, the race wouldn’t have been near as tight for so long, either.

On another note, any negative publicity for that trash, Sharpton, is most justified. I’d like a box on my tax return that I could check that would allow me to donate to any 527 that goes directly after Sharpton.

Posted by: jackhammer at September 7, 2004 10:44 AM

..maybe instead of campaign finance reform.we should merely make it mandatory the ad be listed as fictional,dullusional, or just a fairy tale..I haven`t seen any real figures yet but I wonder just how much money has actually been spent on this campaign…

Posted by: Rob_NC at September 7, 2004 02:01 PM

To find out more about Marks go here:

Scroll down to the Sept 03 section “This is Wah”

This is Wah

BTW it is Willie Horton AND a white guy.

Posted by: M. Simon at September 7, 2004 04:40 PM