The power of Bob Perry's 'Swift-boating' money

By Bill Berkowitz
Created Nov 3 2006 - 8:54am

Houston-based homebuilder and primary funder behind 'Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth' pumps millions into congressional races

In New Mexico, according to Federal Election Commission records, Americans
for Honesty on Issues has spent $165,000 in support of the campaign of
Republican Rep. Heather Wilson, who is hoping to hold onto her seat against
her Democratic challenger, Attorney General Patricia Madrid. In Iowa, the
same group has purchased $159,572 in ads against Democrat Bruce Braley, who
is running against Republican Mike Whalen. In Kentucky, Americans for
Honesty is sponsoring ads targeting Democratic Party candidate Ken Lucas,
who is running for a House seat against Republican Rep. Geoff Davis.

The money for these, and several other congressional races, comes from Bob
Perry, the Houston, Texas-based homebuilder who heads Perry Homes and who
gained national notoriety when he funded the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth"
ad campaign that questioned Democratic Party nominee John Kerry's Vietnam
War record during the 2004 presidential campaign.

A Los Angeles Times article dated August 15, 2004, pointed out the Perry
guarded his privacy, lived fairly modestly considering his wealth, and
willingly donated huge sums of money to the Republican Party. Interestingly
enough, although he has given millions to many political candidates, "the
vast majority of those people have never laid eyes on him," Court Koenning,
executive director of the Republican Party in Harris County, told the Los
Angeles Times.

(The Swift Boat advertisements that ran in such key battleground states as
Wisconsin, Ohio, and West Virginia, were "part of a multimedia campaign
questioning Kerry's fitness as a leader and commander in chief." The Center
for Responsive Politics documented the fact that Perry gave the group, which
subsequently changed its name to Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, $4.45
million in 2004.)

'Bob Perry is a very generous guy with his political donations," Koenning
said. 'His primary interest is good government. . . . Everybody agrees that
John Kerry's service to this country is admirable. But if he lied about it,
that speaks to his character."

At the time, Charles Soechting, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party noted
that Perry "pulls the strings and never gets his hands dirty. But even by
his standards, this latest deal is just over the top." Perry, who worked
with Karl Rove for years, declined to comment through his spokesman, Bill
Miller, an Austin political consultant.

This electoral season Perry has already contributed at least $8 million to a
host of Republican congressional candidates around the country. According to
Congressional Quarterly's PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks how money is
spent in politics, Perry is ranked the No. 1 donor this year. (For more on
Perry's donations, see CampaignMoney.com, which describes itself as "a
unique website that lets you see for yourself the hidden world of American
political campaigns.")

Americans for Honesty on Issues

In mid-October, the Houston Chronicle reported that Perry had given $2
million to Americans for Honesty on Issues, "a new group that is buying
television ads aimed at helping Republicans facing tight House races in
Iowa, Colorado, Indiana, Arizona, North Carolina, Kentucky and New Mexico,
according to the group's latest report to the Federal Election Commission."

Americans for Honesty on Issues "is spending more than $1 million on... ads,
which accuse Democratic candidates of carpetbagging, coddling illegal
immigrants, being soft on crime and advocating cutting off money for troops
in Iraq," the New York Times' John Broder reported earlier this month.

Sue Walden, a Houston-based political consultant that is reported to have
close ties to the ethically-challenged former Republican Congressman Tom
DeLay, is president of the organization. According to the New York Times,
Walden "has also raised money for President Bush and served as an adviser to
Kenneth L. Lay, the former chief executive of Enron who died in July."

The Houston Chronicle also reported that "Earlier this election cycle, Perry
contributed $5 million to the Economic Freedom Fund, which targeted
Democratic congressional candidates in competitive races in Georgia,
Indiana, Iowa and West Virginia.

The Free Enterprise Fund

"Perry kicked in another $1 million to the Washington, DC-based Free
Enterprise Fund, which is airing ads attacking MoveOn.org, a liberal group
that has been active in elections, and Democrats running for the U.S. Senate
in Montana and Connecticut." The $1 million made up the vast majority of
funds recently received by the group, according to Political Money Line.

The Free Enterprise Fund's "Stop MoveOn.org " campaign "is running
television ads attacking the online organization" and tying the group "to
'radical billionaire George Soros,' who appears in the spots looking like a
crazed burglar," The Nation magazine recently reported.

In mid-September, TPMMuckraker.com's Paul Kiel reported that Perry's Free
Enterprise Fund is again "working with" Stevens, Reed, Curcio, and Potholm,
the same group that produced the Swift Boat ads. Stevens, Reed, Curcio and
Potholm has worked for the National Republican Campaign Committee as well as
a number of top-shelf Republicans including Sen. George Allen (R-VA), Sen.
Bill Frist (R-TN), and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

Kiel pointed out that "This July, the group got in hot water for an ad it
ran against Ohio Senate candidate Sherrod Brown... which hit Brown for being
weak on national security, featured a doctored image of the twin towers with
photogenic smoke hovering around them.

"According to documents and local television managers in Georgia and Iowa,
SRCP has been responsible for buying the airtime for the Economic Freedom
Fund's television ads -- attacks against Reps. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), Leonard
Boswell (D-IA), Jim Marshall (D-GA), and John Barrow (D-GA),"
TPMMuckraker.com reported. "It's not clear if the firm actually produced the
ads, or was merely working with Meridian Pacific, the well-connected
California consulting firm that works with the group, to get the ads placed.
Neither SRCP or Meridian Pacific returned my calls to explain their
involvement."

The groups that Perry is funding are -- like the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth -- 527s, "named after a provision in the federal tax code," the
Chronicle's Kristen Mack pointed out. "Donations Perry and others make to
those groups are not subject to the same limits as donations directly
benefiting federal candidates or political parties.

"Direct donations from any individual to a single federal candidate are
limited to $2,100 in an election cycle.

"Expenditures by 527s may not be directed to specific candidates. The money
often buys advertising that is strongly favorable or negative to a candidate
or cause, without specifically soliciting a vote."

In early October, the Austin Chronicle pointed out that Perry and San
Antonio hospital-bed tycoon James Leininger "remain unmatched in the amount
of dollars they give to political candidates and committees... In a review
of contributions made during the first 18 months of the 2006 election cycle,
watchdog group Texans for Public Justice found [that]... Perry and Leininger
still rank No. 1 and No. 2 on TPJ's latest megadonor report."

While mostly known for his political donations, Perry has also given $1
million to the League City YMCA, $1 million to the University of Houston
Center for Mexican American Studies, $100,000 to the Harris County Hurricane
Relief Fund, and $100,000 to the Jefferson County Hurricane Relief Fund,
according to Perry spokesman Anthony Holm.

Texas' home builders lobby lands blow to housing buyers

As a major home builder Perry appears to have played a significant role in
lobbying for the creation of the decidedly anti-consumer Texas Residential
Construction Commission. Last summer, the Texas Monthly wrote about the
birth of this new agency:

In the good old days, if you scrimped and saved and bought your dream home
in Texas, you could sleep easy at night knowing that the roof over your head
was protected by a common-sense legal doctrine. Known as an implied warranty
of habitability, in layman's terms it meant that -- whether or not anything
was put in writing -- the courts would hold the builder to a guarantee that
your home was fit to live in and constructed with care. If your foundation
sagged or your windows leaked or your roof caved in, you could demand that
the builder fix the defect and take him to court if he didn't.

That option is no longer available. In 2003, after spreading around $9
million in campaign contributions, the powerful home builders' lobby got the
Legislature to agree with its contention that implied warranties were too
darn vague and that the lawsuits they produced were too damaging to the
industry. Instead, it asked lawmakers to create a new state agency to
protect builders from legal retribution. It was one of the most blatant
power plays in recent years, made possible by an anti-lawsuit fervor that
swept through the new Republican-controlled Legislature and by the influence
of two politically active builders: the biggest individual contributor, Bob
Perry (no relation to Governor Rick Perry but lots of political ties), and
the co-founder of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, Dick Weekley. Thus was born the
Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC), which in its short life
has served as the classic case study of what can happen when a public agency
is captured by the industry it is supposed to regulate.

Free Enterprise Fund launches anti-Ford ads in Tennessee

On October 19, the Scripps Howard News Service reported that in the hotly
contested Senate race in Tennessee between Democratic Congressman Harold
Ford Jr. and Republican Bob Corker, the Free Enterprise Fund "began airing
ads in Middle and West Tennessee on Tuesday [October 17] that attack
Democrat Harold Ford Jr. for 'living it up on campaign cash but pushing
higher taxes for Tennessee families.'"

Michael Powell, senior advisor to the Ford campaign, said the organization
was "not a group that is interested in telling the truth. This is a group
interested in scaring voters and slandering Congressman Ford."

The ad, which dubs the Democrat "fancy Ford" for his allegedly "lavish
spending from campaign funds. The three examples cited in the ad are
'luxurious five-star hotels,' 'fancy designer Armani suit' and 'fine
Davidoff cigars,'" Scripps Howard News Service reported.

"Swift boat politics has no place in Tennessee," said Powell. "By embracing
this kind of stuff, Bob Corker proves yet again that truth is not important
to him."

As the Bush campaign did in 2004, a spokesperson for the Corker campaign
denied that it had any "contact or control with the Free Enterprise Fund"
and it claimed it hadn't seen the ad until it ran on October the 17th. But,
added Corker spokesperson Todd Womack, the ads "facts appear to be
accurate."
_______

--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107

"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson