Tired Sullivan Campaign Attacks Sold by Washington D.C. Group
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 09/22/2014
ANCHORAGE — An Alaska Dispatch News investigative report into Alaska’s Senate race revealed Dan Sullivan’s campaign relies on the off-the-shelf political attacks bought and sold by Outside groups associated with the Koch brothers and Karl Rove. The Sullivan campaign and Outside groups share a “central warehouse” of false attacks which have been used to attack Mark Begich‘s mayoral legacy.
When asked about efforts to ensure there is no illegal coordination between these groups, Sullivan Communications Director Mike Anderson dodged the question and “didn’t directly respond to a request to speak about how it ensures its vendors don’t break coordination rules.”
“Dan Sullivan’s choreographed run for Alaska’s Senate seat is bought and paid for by Outside groups like the Koch brothers. Right down to the false attacks he parrots, Dan Sullivan is bought by Outside interests who don’t care about Alaska or the truth. The Koch brothers and Karl Rove can have Dan Sullivan say whatever they like, but that doesn’t change their record of firing 80 Alaskans and raising taxes on Alaskans after closing the Flint Hills refinery,” said Max Croes, Alaskans for Begich Communications Director.
Outside Groups, like Crossroads GPS which is backed by Karl Rove, have spent millions on ads that have been labeled “false” and “twisted,” including recent false attacks on Mark Begich‘s record.
The Alaska Dispatch News writes:
“…when the outside Republican group Crossroads GPS launched a TV ad attacking Begich’s mayoral legacy, it used those same two paragraphs — with identical language, formatting and indentation — in a five-page document it provided to justify the claims made in the commercial.
The source was America Rising, another Republican organization with a corporate political research arm that sells its materials to campaigns and to outside groups like Crossroads GPS.
“Everyone is paying for the same research, information, and then they can use it at their own discretion. Nobody’s getting a free ride; nobody is discussing how they want to deploy that information,” said Tim Miller, America Rising’s executive director. “It doesn’t really make a lot of sense for everyone to hire their own 23-year-old to do research when you could just go buy research from a central warehouse, essentially.”
This isn’t the first time Sullivan has adopted attacks from the Koch brothers or Karl Rove. With Karl Rove’s blessing Sullivan attempted to turn the Arizona VA scandal - which resulted in the tragic death of veterans- into a political attacks in Alaska. Sullivan’s attempt backfired because Alaskans are familiar with Mark Begich’s record of delivering for Alaska veterans and reducing VA wait times.
