Shadowy Virginia-based group runs ads for Santorum (DeLay connection)

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Group's ad touts Santorum's record on tax relief
11/21/2005, 5:42 p.m. ET
By KIMBERLY HEFLING
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A group called Americans for Job Security is spending more than $450,000 to run an ad in support of Sen. Rick Santorum's 2006 re-election bid.

Americans for Job Security, based in Alexandria, Va., is registered under 501(c) of the federal tax code, a classification that allows groups to engage in political activity without revealing contributors as long as that is not their main activity. The president, Michael Dubke, said the organization does not reveal donors because that would distract from their message.

Dubke said the ad is a kickoff to a national campaign to promote tax cuts and other issues the group backs. He said there would be a heated political and policy debate during the Pennsylvania race and "we want to be part of that debate."

The ad started running Friday and will be aired for about two weeks in all Pennsylvania markets except Philadelphia, he said.

http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-32/113261334722300.xml&storylist=

he recent indictments of Tom DeLay—on charges that he criminally conspired to launder $190,000 in corporate political funds—identify Karl Rove protégé Terry Nelson as the unindicted co-conspirator who oversaw the alleged money laundering in Washington, D.C. in 2002. What is largely unknown is that a consulting firm that Nelson founded has worked for another shadowy group accused of improperly influencing a special state senate election in Texas in 2003. Moreover, Nelson has enhanced his ties to the Bush administration since the time of these legally questionable efforts to influence Texas elections.

Meanwhile Nelson had co-founded the GOP media shop Dawson McCarthy Nelson Media (DMNM) in 2001. Among the clients claimed on DMNM’s website is Americans for Job Security (AJS), a shadowy Virginia-based group that the American Insurance Association helped launch in 1997 by supplying $1 million in seed money. AJS takes out attack ads against liberal and moderate candidates nationwide without disclosing its political contributions or expenditures. This track record of spending large quantities of undisclosed funds on attack ads has fostered the perception that AJS is a for-hire corporate attack dog. Last year Austin-based Campaigns for People filed a complaint with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, urging him to investigate if AJS violated Texas’ prohibition on corporate electioneering. At issue were 2003 attack ads that AJS unleashed to help defeat moderate Tommy Merritt in the Republican primary for a vacated senate seat in 2003 (“Meet the Attack Dogs,” March 12, 2004).
http://www.mollyivins.com/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=2055