Radio ad tries to tie Porter to Bush

A new radio ad being aired in Las Vegas attacks Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., for supporting nasty economic policies that help the rich and hurt the middle class.

Policies like the child tax credit.

The ad, a production of the liberal advocacy group Americans United for Change, aims to tie Porter to President Bush's economic policies and the war in Iraq.

One line states, "What has Congressman Jon Porter done? He's supported Bush's trickle-down economics that got us into this mess -- like tax giveaways for the wealthy and big oil companies."

The materials provided by the group to back up that claim list as the first piece of supporting evidence, "Porter voted to increase the deficit by extending tax credit to the wealthy. In 2004, Porter voted for the child tax credit bill, which over the next ten years will add $228 billion to the national debt."

Other evidence included for the claim about "tax giveaways" included Porter's votes in favor of tax breaks for wealthy households, big corporations and the oil industry. Those are standard targets for those who oppose Republican economic policies, but the child tax credit is not.

A spokesman for the group, Jeremy Funk, said, "We have absolutely nothing against the child tax credit. It's a good thing. But that bill extended it to the wealthy. It's just another example of Jon Porter voting for tax breaks for those who don't need it."

The bill in question made the credit permanent and expanded it to apply to families making up to $250,000 a year. The ad is airing through this week on KXNT-AM, the Las Vegas station that broadcasts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity's conservative radio shows.

Porter's top Democratic opponent, Robert Daskas, has proposed expanding another tax credit for families, the child and dependent care tax credit, from its current $1,000 to $2,000 for families paying to care for children or elderly relatives.

Daskas doesn't see either credit as a giveaway, said his campaign manager, Heather Urban. Had he been in office for the child tax credit vote, he would have supported it, she said, "but ensuring that the bill was paid for and doing it in a fiscally responsible manner."

She added, "He does support repealing tax subsidies for oil companies and closing the loophole for companies shipping jobs overseas."

FREEDOM'S WATCH COMPLAINT

Americans United for Change is a 501c(4) nonprofit, which means it is technically a nonpartisan issue advocacy group and isn't allowed to coordinate with candidates or political parties. That status gives it more favorable limits than a political group would have.

The same goes for a right-leaning counterpart organization, Freedom's Watch, which reportedly is largely bankrolled by Las Vegas' own Sheldon Adelson. But Democrats are charging that Freedom's Watch is not as independent as the law requires.

The Las Vegas Sands Corp. chairman, America's third richest person and the man President Bush stays with when he comes to town, has reportedly contributed tens of millions of dollars to Freedom's Watch, which burst onto the scene in mid-2007 to support Bush's Iraq policy. Adelson is a prolific donor to the Republican Party and its candidates as well as pro-Israel and conservative causes.

A Federal Election Commission complaint filed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last week charges that Freedom's Watch is not an independent voice, but a de facto arm of the Republican Party. The Democrats say the National Republican Congressional Committee and Freedom's Watch have been illegally working together.

As proof, the Democrats cite ads attacking Don Cazayoux, a candidate for Congress in Louisiana, as a tax-and-spender. The Republican committee aired a television commercial first; on the day the committee's ad buy ended, Freedom's Watch began airing an ad the Democrats call "strikingly similar," featuring the same theme and many of the same images.

Most damning, the Democrats point to a Microsoft Word file Freedom's Watch sent to television stations with the script and backup materials for the ad. "NRCC" is listed in the electronic tags on the file.

"Purporting to promote the social welfare, Freedom's Watch instead has played Santa Claus to Republican House candidates," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Executive Director Brian Wolff wrote in a letter to the FEC asking for an investigation. No action has yet been taken on the matter.

A Freedom's Watch spokesman, Ed Patru, accused the Democrats of "sensational, black-helicopter conspiracy theories." He said the presence of "NRCC" in the file wasn't evidence of collusion.

Freedom's Watch, he said, contracted with a vendor to make the ad, and the vendor had previously done work for the NRCC. The vendor used an old NRCC document as a template for the new ad, totally unbeknownst to Freedom's Watch, Patru said.

"As much as the DCCC would apparently like to pass a law against recycling old Word documents, that's not the issue in Louisiana," Patru said. "Tax policy is."

Freedom's Watch has run ads on behalf of a Democratic candidate, proving that the group is nonpartisan, he said.

COPENING FORMS TEAM

Allison Copening, the Democrat running for state Senate against Republican Sen. Bob Beers in Las Vegas, is putting together a campaign team.

Copening has brought on longtime Nevada operative Ronni Council as a consultant to her campaign, which is being led by Lindsey Jydstrup and the Democratic legislative caucus.

Council worked for Hillary Clinton's campaign in Nevada in the weeks before the caucus, after Joe Biden, whose Nevada campaign she helmed, dropped out of the race after Iowa. Her current consulting clients include Americans United for Change in its local activities, such as anti-war protests.

Council said Julie Mogensen, who does fundraising for the state Democratic Party, also is coming on board to do fundraising. Copening, she said, is "putting together a strong team of people with skills in different areas."

Beers' campaign manager, Robert Uithoven, said his campaign is being assisted by Joe Brezny, who ran Mitt Romney's ultra-successful Nevada campaign, then returned to the Republican legislative caucus, along with "lots of voters in Senate District 6."

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball @reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.