Over the weekend my colleague John Hageman wrote an article about the third party attack ads which are flooding North Dakota’s Senate race now, something which will be the case until November. Supposedly these ads are run by committees independent of the candidates, though in practice there isn’t always a whole lot of independence. Case…
Television Station Says Heitkamp Allies Misrepresented Cramer’s Comments on Their Broadcast
The Senate Majority PAC, a group affiliated with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, has been running advertising recently accusing Congressman Kevin Cramer of promoting cuts to Social Security and Medicare. This is the ad I wrote about recently which was coordinated with talking points disseminated by the Heitkamp campaign. The claim about Cramer’s position on Social…
Heitkamp’s Campaign Skirts FEC Prohibitions on Working With Third Party Political Action Groups…Again
Back in March I pointed out that Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign was skirting FEC rules prohibiting coordination between candidate campaigns and independent political action committees. These organizations are not allowed to work together. They cannot communicate with one another. But Heitkamp, like some other politicians, has found a work around. Instead of communicating with these…
Heidi Heitkamp’s Campaign Skirts Election Laws to Coordinate With Schumer PAC Despite Previous Advocacy Against “Dark Money”
Last year Senator Heidi Heitkamp announced that she would be joining with Montana Democrat Jon Tester in introducing legislation to “push back against dark money in politics.” “If out-of-state billionaires want to jam North Dakota airwaves with year-round political ads, we should at least know who’s behind them,” she said in a press release about the…