September 02, 2010 01:13 AM UTC

Pro-Buck Groups Get Ads Pulled in Missouri

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• by: Colorado Pols

Interesting news today from Missouri, via the campaign for Democratic Senate candidate Robin Carnahan:

Missouri media outlets have pulled two misleading attack ads against Robin Carnahan being aired by Congressman Blunt’s corporate special interest allies.  This weekend, a Missouri network including 77 radio stations pulled a false attack ad being run by Americans for Job Security – a group with a long history of campaign related citations and violations. [Anchorage Daily News,  8/17/08; FEC.gov]

In addition, Karl Rove’s special interest group, American Crossroads GPS, had their attack ad pulled down by CableNet while the FEC looks into allegations of illegal coordination between Congressman Blunt’s campaign and Rove’s group.

Both Americans for Job Security and American Crossroads GPS have run ads in Colorado on behalf of Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck, with Americans for Job Security (AJS) spending more than $2 million for Buck in the primary alone.

We’ve long wondered about potential coordination issues with Buck’s campaign and these outside interest groups. The question first came to mind when Buck raised a curiously low $40,000 in the last fundraising quarter of 2009, because normally such a poor effort for a Senate candidate would all but end their campaign; the only way Buck could have remained credible was if his campaign (and high-level supporters) knew that there would be significant outside help available. Buck had raised $1.2 million for his campaign as of the July 21 reporting period, which was less than Republican Cory Gardner had raised in his CD-4 congressional campaign, and about half of what AJS spent just on TV ads on Buck’s behalf.

The connection dug up in Missouri between Republican Rep. Roy Blunt and outside interest groups like AJS may very well end up being made with Buck as well, and if so, it will play a major role in deciding whether Buck can defeat Sen. Michael Bennet in November. If Buck doesn’t have these ads on the air in Colorado, he’s in trouble.