Well well, more on that UPSTANDING Pos Blumenthal
SNIP:
.Blumenthal camp aids groupÂ’s attack on McMahon
Published: Saturday, October 23, 2010
0diggsdigg ShareThis10By Ed Stannard, New Haven Register
Staff members for state Attorney General Richard BlumenthalÂ’s U.S. Senate campaign assisted Planned Parenthood when the agency asked for photos of women wrestlers in order to launch an attack on Linda McMahon, the campaign confirmed Friday.
McMahonÂ’s campaign accused BlumenthalÂ’s of cooperating with the womenÂ’s health organization in election activities.
While nonprofit and for-profit groups can spend money on campaigns, a result of the Supreme CourtÂ’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, they are not allowed to coordinate efforts on paid political advertisements.
Earlier this week, the state Democratic Party filed a complaint with the FEC charging coordinated campaign activity between McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment, run by her husband, Vince.
“It was just yesterday that the Blumenthal-funded state Democratic Party filed a frivolous complaint alleging coordination — despite the fact that they had no evidence,” said McMahon spokesman Ed Patru in an e-mail.
“Today, there is clear and incriminating evidence that Dick Blumenthal is not only engaged in potentially illegal coordination, but that he is a politician who will stop at nothing to hold onto power.”
But according to Marc Elias, an elections lawyer working with the Blumenthal campaign, coordination between the campaign and Planned Parenthood is legal because it is intended only to be put on the Internet.
The FEC “essentially exempted the Internet from what we think of as the coordination rules,” said Elias, a partner in the Perkins Coie law firm in Washington.
The rule enabled bloggers and others who may not fit under the news mediaÂ’s exemptions to discuss issues with campaigns that will end up on Twitter or elsewhere on the Web, Elias said.
“Organizations that do that will typically have a dividing line between folks that talk to campaigns and those that don’t,” he said. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsed Blumenthal in June.
Ty Matsdorf, a spokesman for the Blumenthal campaign, verified the e-mail that Patru distributed, which was sent by Marcy Stech to other campaign and Democratic staffers.
Under the subject, “Worst of WWE + women photos,” the e-mail stated that Democratic consultant Andrew Grossman “is looking for mysoginistic photos of women and WWE. Planned Parenthood wants to hit LM hard on it. What do we got?”
The e-mail first appeared on the Politico blog.
the rest at.
Blumenthal camp aids group?s attack on McMahon - The Middletown Press : Serving Middletown, CT
