Centrist PAC has Swift Boat link

Centrist House Republicans who are facing tough reelections in districts won by former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004 have tapped a consultant linked to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to head their new political action committee (PAC).

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth damaged Kerry’s bid for the White House by criticizing his war record, a tough tactic that sparked condemnation even from Republicans such as Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

{mosads}Christopher J. Ward, a partner at Political Compliance Services Inc., is listed as the treasurer of the new Tuesday Group PAC, named after a group of centrist Republicans who hold weekly meetings in the Capitol. Records filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show Ward’s position with the PAC and detail a $1,500 payment made to his firm at the end of May.

Since the spring of 2004, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth paid Ward’s firm nearly $230,000 for services ranging from database management to website consulting, according to disbursements archived at PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan website that tracks fundraising.

Don McGahn, the counsel for the Tuesday Group PAC, said Ward did not handle his firm’s account with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. He said another partner at the firm worked on that business.

McGahn also noted that Ward has a long record of working with many Republican organizations. He serves as treasurer of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and worked on Steve Forbes’s presidential campaign.  

“He’s the treasurer for a lot of committees,” said McGahn. “He does a lot of joint fundraising committees for state parties and candidates.”

Swift Boat Veterans became a lightening rod in the 2004 race for questioning Kerry’s military service in Vietnam, for which he received Silver and Bronze Stars for valor in action.   

“When we first wrote about the ads slamming Democratic nominee John F. Kerry's service in Vietnam, we said that Mr. Kerry's emphasis on his Vietnam experience had made questions about his war record fair game,” opined The Washington Post in an editorial published in August of 2004. “But we said that ads by the group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had crossed the line in smearing the service that earned Mr. Kerry three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star.”

McCain, a Republican who endorsed President Bush in 2004 and a favorite among centrist GOPers and independent voters, at the time condemned one of the group’s ads as “dishonest and dishonorable.”

A report by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania found that initial funding for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth came from Bob R. Perry, a Houston builder who gave millions to Republican candidates, including Bush and former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Texas), two figures in the GOP from whom centrists have scrambled to distance themselves.

Eight centrist Republicans whom Democrats will target in the 2008 election hail from districts Kerry won in 2004.
Whether voters have enough sympathy for Kerry or long enough memories for them to care about a link between the centrist Republican lawmakers and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth remains to be seen.

“I suppose MoveOn.org could use this connection to attack the Republican incumbents,” said Larry Sabato, who heads the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “It’s also useful if the Republican [candidates] challenge in a negative way their Democrat opponents.”

Sabato said a Democrat could accuse his opponent of “swift-boating” him, a verb born of the 2004 controversy.

But political experts question whether many voters even remember the controversy from the height of the 2004 race.

“For the electorate at large, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is old news,” said David Wasserman, an expert on House races at The Cook Political Report, a non-partisan election-analysis publication.

“I think the links and associations to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are too inside-baseball for voters to understand, even if they are presented in ads by the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee],” said Wasserman. “Democrats could make the case that there’s a valid association there, but there are stronger lines of attack in 2008.”

Centrist Republicans facing reelection in districts Kerry won include Reps. Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Charlie Dent (Pa.), the co-chairmen of the Tuesday Group, and Reps. Mike Castle (Del.), Jim Gerlach (Pa.), Dave Reichert (Wash.), Christopher Shays (Conn.), Heather Wilson (N.M.), and James Walsh (N.Y.).