Pro-Clinton group airing ad in Indiana
By JIM KUHNHENN =96 3 hours ago
WA****NGTON (AP) =97 A political advocacy group consisting of backers of
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign was to begin
spending at least $700,000 Tuesday in an Indiana advertising blitz
calling on Sen. Barack Obama to address the economic plight of
Americans.
The Indiana ad campaign would be the biggest single expenditure in a
state for the mostly union financed group, called the American
Leader****p Project. The group spent more than $1 million running ads
in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
"Indiana has been ground zero for economic anxiety since 2001," said
Jason Kinney, an Indiana native and one of the organizers of the
American Leader****p Project.
The ad quotes commentators who describe Obama's economic plan as
deficient. The ad campaign could come at a crucial time for Clinton.
The Democratic presidential race in Indiana is a dead heat, according
to public opinion polls. Obama, the better-financed candidate, has
been spending more than Clinton in the state.
As of its last filing with the Federal Election Commission, the group
had raised $1.5 million, almost all of it from the American Federation
of State, County and Municipal Employees, a union that has endorsed
Clinton.
The group is a so-called 527 organization, named after the section of
the tax code that governs their activities. Such groups, unlike
candidates and political action committees, can raise unlimited
amounts of money from unions, individuals and cor****ations.
But the law prohibits them from coordinating their work with political
campaigns. They also are barred from explicitly advocating the
election or defeat of a candidate. But they are permitted to sup****t
or oppose issues and the stands that candidates take on those issues.
Before the Ohio and Texas primaries, the American Leader****p Project
ran an ad sup****ting Clinton's economic policies. The ad did not
mention Obama, but alluded to him with an announcer saying: "If
speeches could create jobs, we wouldn't be facing a recession."
The ad campaign became more pointed in Pennsylvania, claiming Obama's
health care plan would leave millions uninsured.
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