Franken gets hit with first attack ad
WASHINGTON - Al Franken's re-election campaign has been warning supporters in fundraising emails for months that deep-pocketed conservative groups would likely target the first-term Democrat. As of Wednesday, those predictions have come true.
A nonprofit conservative group called American Encore has launched a $250,000 television ad campaign against Franken. The ads were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The ads criticize Franken for what the group describes as an effort to muzzle free speech for his support of tighter Internal Revenue Service regulations on nonprofit political groups that can shield their donors from disclosure. This is a long-running charge made by Republicans against Franken. MPR's Poligraph has weighed in on similar claims made by Republicans and concluded, "these claims [are] misleading to the point of being false."
Sean Noble, the founder of American Encore and a conservative operative with deep ties to the libertarian billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, did not respond to interview requests. A ProPublica profile of Noble last month reported that Noble "handed out almost $137 million in 2012 alone" from anonymous donors to conservative nonprofits that skirted disclosure rules for political spending.
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Noble did speak to the Wall Street Journal about the reasoning behind the ads:
“We have been under attack because of the nature of the kind of work we have done,” Mr. Noble said. “There have been a lot of misconceptions and falsehoods said about the kind of activity we engage in. We felt it was important to take this debate to the people.”
Franken has long opposed the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling and subsequent decisions that opened the doors to greater spending by corporations and well-heeled donors.
"This is ridiculous. Sen. Franken is one of the most vigorous defenders of free speech in the Senate," said Franken campaign spokeswoman Alexandra Fetissoff. "These attacks have been repeatedly proven false. We’ve always known that Sen. Franken was going to be a target of special interest groups. It’s no surprise that they’re here, but it’s not going to stop him from doing his job."
American Encore's ad campaign comes just a few days after a well-connected Republican operative in Minnesota filed paperwork for a super PAC to target Franken. A Super PAC can accept unlimited donations so long as the group does not coordinate with a political campaign but it must disclose its donors. Franken's allies have also established a super PAC on his behalf in case his campaign needs assistance responding to conservative groups.
UPDATE - Sean Noble, American Encore's president, called and provided more details about the group's activities. Noble said it's possible American Encore will run more ads against Franken and added that in addition to the $256,000 it is spending on the television ad, the group is spending an additional $25,000 on online ads. Noble said the group does not have its eye on other officeholders in Minnesota.
Noble emphasized that Franken's advocacy for stricter campaign finance regulations and laws spurred the group's decision to target Franken, citing his previous career as a comedian and political satirist.
"Al Franken should know better than anybody the value of the first Amendment and the value of free speech and it shouldn't be for certain classes of society, it should be for everybody," said Noble.
Groups such as American Encore are organized under section 501(c)4 of the tax code and are designated as "social welfare" organizations that are not supposed to dedicate more than 50 percent of their resources to political spending. Noble said American Encore's ad was not intended to influence Franken's re-election although he said the group might eventually run ads that either support or oppose specific candidates.
"Our primary purpose is to engage in education and issue advocacy about the policies that we think are hurting moving America forward," said Noble.