Texan's donation buys last-minute anti-Tester ads
In three days beginning last Friday, a Virginia group calling itself Americans for Honesty on Issues, took a $1 million donation from a single Texas donor and spent $369,778 of it to produce and run one television ad in Montana against Democratic candidate Jon Tester...It is also unclear where the group is headquartered. Federal records show Americans for Honesty on Issues lists an Alexandria, Va., address - the same address Walden lists on the paperwork. However, Walden's business - Walden & Associates - has a Houston telephone number.

HELENA - In an example of how heated and high-dollar Montana's race for U.S. Senate has become, consider this:

In three days beginning last Friday, a Virginia group calling itself Americans for Honesty on Issues, took a $1 million donation from a single Texas donor and spent $369,778 of it to produce and run one television ad in Montana against Democratic candidate Jon Tester.

The ad is hardly the first time an outside group has spent money on Montana's watched Senate race, pitting incumbent Republican Sen. Conrad Burns against Tester. National Democrats have been running ads critical of Burns for months. The state Democratic Party paid for a few ads against Burns beginning last year.

But for weeks, few independent groups were weighing in on behalf of Burns, who had been passed over for big-dollar TV advertising by national Republicans.


That changed this week, when the National Republican Senatorial Committee bought $310,000 worth of ads on behalf of Burns. That amount would allow the committee to run one ad enough times for every Montanan to see it between 15 and 18 times before next Tuesday's election.

Little is known about the group that is running the latest ads. Americans for Honesty on Issues says on its Web site only that it is "organized to engage in political issue communications in compliance with federal and state laws."

A telephone call to Sue Walden, the political consultant who filed the groups' required paperwork with the Federal Elections Committee and controls the group, was not returned.

It is also unclear where the group is headquartered. Federal records show Americans for Honesty on Issues lists an Alexandria, Va., address - the same address Walden lists on the paperwork.

However, Walden's business - Walden & Associates - has a Houston telephone number.

The New York Times reported in early October that the group intended to run ads against nine Democrats this election.

On Oct. 27, the group got a $1 million donation from a Houston man named Bob J. Perry, according to federal records.

Perry, a homebuilder, was the chief backer of the group that ran the "Swift Boat" ads against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, the Associated Press has reported. The ads questioned Kerry's Vietnam War record.

Matt McKenna, a spokesman for the Tester campaign, said the campaign first noticed an ad paid for by the group on Monday.

The ad faults Tester for his stance on the U.S. Patriot Act, a controversial bill passed with overwhelming support shortly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Supporters say the bill helps the government pursue terrorists. Others, including Tester, say the bill goes too far, giving up too many liberties for citizens.

Tester has called for the act to be repealed.

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/11/02/news/state/60-donation.txt
Published on Thursday, November 02, 2006.
Last modified on 11/2/2006 at 12:55 am