Houston homebuilder Bob Perry came to national attention two years ago when he gave more than $4 million to a group called "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth."

Now he's back in the news around the country in connection with $5 million in donations he gave to an outfit called the Economic Freedom Fund.

Swift Boat Veterans used Perry's money effectively to attack Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's accounts of heroism in Vietnam, for which he was awarded three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star.

The Economic Freedom Fund, which so far has received few donations other than Perry's, has targeted for attack a handful of Democratic congressional candidates in competitive races in Georgia, Indiana, Iowa and West Virginia.

There's plenty of that going around, but what has earned the group (and

Perry) publicity is that the attorney general in Indiana has sued the Fund for violating a state law banning mass recorded phone calls.

Telemarketer fighting law

Politics at play?

Not likely. Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter is a Republican.

What's more, he subsequently went to court against a group using recorded phone calls to attack a Republican congressman.

Carter had sent out a letter to both state parties announcing that he intended to enforce the 1988 law in regards to political phone calls, even though it generally had not been enforced in such cases before.

The Fund agreed to a court order prohibiting the calls until the suit is tried, which won't happen until after the election. The penalty can range as high as $5,000 for each violation. The company the Fund hired to make the calls is challenging the law's constitutionality, saying it violates free speech protections and inhibits interstate commerce.

Ambitious campaign

Other than Perry, it is unclear who is behind the Economic Freedom Fund. The only name included in publicly filed papers is Charles Bell Jr., an election law specialist who serves as general counsel for the Republican Party of California.

Bell has not returned reporters' phone calls, including mine, and a spokesman for Perry said he would not comment.

The phone calls are just one part of the ambitious campaign. Most the money is being spent on TV ads attacking Democratic candidates with titles such as, "The Tax Man," "Double Life," "Who Is This?" and "Cheek."

The Fund is using the same Virginia media firm — Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm — that did the Swift Boat ads attacking Kerry.

The controversy has received coverage in the states involved, as well as in Time magazine.