Legal Commentary

Obama Files FEC Complaint Over 527 Group's Hillary Ad

By Jeralyn

Barack Obama's campaign filed a complaint with the FEC today over a 527 group's ad attacking Obama's economic plan for having no specifics.

He didn't always feel that way about 527 ads. When a group supporting John Edwards aired one in Iowa he was critical, saying:

You can't just talk the talk. The easiest thing in the world is to talk about change during election time."

But when a 527 group aired a shameful ad on Spanish radio stations in Nevada that re-injected ethnicity into the campaign, an ad that supported him and attacked Hillary in Nevada,

A spokesman for Obama, Bill Burton, did not condemn the ad or the independent spending specifically, but instead attacked Clinton.

More...

On a related note, Move-On tomorrow will launch an ad against McCain.

The 30-second ad, funded by the group’s donors and its political action committee, marks the start of the liberal advocacy group’s million dollar, month-long ad campaign aimed at the Arizona senator.

MoveOn will spend $160,000 to air the new ad — titled “Candles” — on cable as well as on broadcast networks in Iowa and New Mexico, where the McCain campaign is currently on the air without competition from either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

The RNC calls the Move-On ad a smear campaign:

“At nearly every event, Obama bemoans the ‘negative tone’ of politics, even while groups that support him are now running negative ads. Now, Obama should prove his rhetoric is more than ‘just words’ and stand up to MoveOn.org.”

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 30, 2008 (boomark / email).