527
20 February 2008 9:00 am by Taylor Marsh
Rumors become reality. Marc
Ambinder broke the story. Jake Tapper has additional details:
ABC News has learned that a group of Democratic politicos have set up a new
independent 527 organization called the American Leadership Project
(ALP) with the express purpose of helping Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, beat
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, in Ohio, and possibly Texas and Pennsylvania
as well. …… … ALP has developed three ads aimed at pushing the idea that Sen. Barack
Obama, D-Illinois, is a talker and not a doer — the ads are called “If
speeches could solve problems" — and they will contrast Obama and Clinton
on issues of importance to middle class voters, such as the economy, health
care, and the mortgage crisis."Our purpose is to encourage audiences to look beyond the campaign speeches
and political rhetoric to specific proposals to address these core issues,"
says an ALP mission statement obtained by ABC News. … ..
The people involved are all veterans of political wars, so to speak. Mattis
Goldman made ads for Sherrod Brown, to name just one (YouTube
of ads). Brown is one of my favorite Democrats, with a toughness and plain
spoken nature that resonates with me. The ad samples at the link above that feature Brown are very good. Erick Mullen worked
for Gen. Wesley Clark (ret.) during his 2004 bid for the presidency. Paul Rivera
was a senior political adviser for Kerry-Edwards, and also worked in the Clinton-Gore
White House, as did Roger Salazar, who also was Edwards’s national spokesman
for his 2004 presidential bid. According to Tapper, Obama will not be mentioned
by name in the ads to come.
As for what the Clinton team, which cannot coordinate with the new 527, they have another website, which Tapper also talks about today: THE DELEGATE HUB. No guessing what the goal here is on this one:
Five Facts about Democratic Delegates
FACT: Pledged delegates and automatic delegates are the same – they each count for ONE vote.
The Democratic Party chooses its delegates in three ways: 1) through primaries where millions vote; 2) through caucuses where thousands vote; and 3) it gives a role to elected leaders and other party activists in the process.
