Wealthy Texans paying to derail Hillary Clinton
Many bank on outside '527' groups to help defeat candidates
06:17 AM CST on Monday, December 4, 2006
By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – A Dallas businessman is helping bankroll an effort to derail Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential hopes, and he says he plans to tap other big-money Texans in the cause.
Richard Collins has put at least $80,000 into a group called Stop Her Now, which launched a new Web site last week targeting the possible frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in 2008.
"We expect to raise millions of dollars, a lot of it from online people and a lot of it from wealthy, conservative donors from around the country that want to keep Hillary Clinton from being elected president," Mr. Collins said.
The effort is the latest example of a small network of Texans with deep pockets funding independent committees, an expansion of their influence beyond just raising money directly for candidates. The groups, which emerged in the 2004 presidential campaign, are a powerful new force influencing national campaigns.
In addition to the Web site, which will feature cartoons and a series of animated shorts dubbed the "Hillary Show," Mr. Collins said the anti-Clinton group plans an aggressive direct-mail campaign.
"We're going to define Hillary as an ambitious, calculating, tough political operator who is trying to define herself as a centrist Democrat when, in fact, she's an ultraliberal Democrat," said Mr. Collins, who owns a newspaper group with publications in Cedar Hill, Duncanville, DeSoto, Lancaster and Grand Prairie.
Clinton supporter Garry Mauro dismissed the venture as a "bad investment."
"They should save their money to attack people who are relatively unknown," said Mr. Mauro, a former Texas land commissioner and long-time political ally of the Clintons.
Mr. Mauro said Ms. Clinton is so well-known that groups like Stop Her Now are likely to have little impact on changing the strong opinions that people already have about her.
Ms. Clinton won a lightly contested re-election race to her New York Senate seat in November and is weighing a presidential bid.
Ann Lewis, spokeswoman for Ms. Clinton's political committee, said the senator is prepared to defend herself against any group that mounts a serious attack, such as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads that caused problems for Democratic nominee John Kerry in 2004.
Three Texans – Houston homebuilder Bob Perry and Dallas businessmen T. Boone Pickens and Harold Simmons – provided most of the money for the group.
According to finance reports, the three gave $10.5 million, or 62 percent, of the group's funding. The group raised questions about Mr. Kerry's military service, which had been a strong point in his political portfolio, and helped scuttle his campaign against President Bush.
Such partisan groups, called 527s after a section of the tax code that governs them, are the product of new federal campaign-finance laws that outlaw major donations to political parties.
Big-dollar donors have turned to groups like MoveOn and Swift Boat Veterans, which can take unlimited contributions and target specific candidates.
In the presidential race two years ago, the largest contributor to such independent groups was New York financier George Soros, who donated $24 million to Democrat-leaning 527s but scaled back his spending in 2006.
This year, Mr. Perry is the largest individual contributor to such groups, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filings. He gave $6.7 million to a pair of GOP groups that targeted Democratic congressional candidates with television and automated-telephone attacks in nine states.
With a Democratic tide sweeping congressional races nationwide, the effort largely failed in House races but did help successful GOP efforts against Senate candidates Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee and Ned Lamont in Connecticut.
Looking toward 2008, Mr. Collins said he plans to solicit the Texans who bankrolled Swift Boat Veterans for his anti-Clinton effort.
"They are big players, and we want to play on the national stage," said Mr. Collins. "This is like an inverted pyramid, where you start with a small nucleus of people and you build from there."
Mr. Collins said he is not actively aligned with any potential GOP presidential candidate. Records show he has contributed $10,000 to Rudolph Giuliani's political action committee and $5,000 to Sen. John McCain's committee.
E-mail
wslater@dallasnews.com
Bigger in Texas
Big-dollar Texas donors are major players in the independent political committees known as 527s, which are fast becoming a favored way to work for or against candidates. Here's a look at some major donations from Texans in each campaign since the committees emerged as a major funding source in 2004:
2008
REPUBLICAN
Donor: Richard Collins, Dallas County newspaper publisher
Amount: $80,000
Purpose: To launch an anti-Hillary Rodham Clinton Web site, StopHerNow.com, with plans to raise several million dollars to derail the senator's White House prospects
2006
REPUBLICAN
Donor: Bob Perry, Houston homebuilder
Amount: $6.7 million
Purpose: To fund GOP committees attacking Democratic congressional incumbents on television and with automated telephone calls in nine states, including West Virginia, Georgia and Iowa
DEMOCRAT
Donor: Linda Pritzker, Houston hotel heiress
Amount: $2.3 million
Purpose: To help Democratic committees for identification and get-out-the-vote efforts for congressional races in three dozen closely contested states, especially in the Midwest
2004
REPUBLICAN
Donor: Mr. Perry
Amount: $8 million
Purpose: To support Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and other GOP groups attacking Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's record of military service
Donor: Boone Pickens, Dallas oilman
Amount: $5.6 million
Purpose: To help Swift Boat Veterans and the Progress for America Voter Fund, which also targeted Mr. Kerry
Donor: Harold Simmons, Dallas investor
Amount: $4.5 million
Purpose: To help Swift Boat Veterans and other GOP groups targeting Mr. Kerry
Donor: Alice Walton, Mineral Wells rancher and Wal-Mart heiress
Amount: $2.6 million
Purpose: Progress for America Fund, which sponsored a television ad showing images of Osama bin Laden and other terrorists as an announcer asked: "Would you trust Kerry against these fanatic killers?"
Donor: Robert McNair, Houston energy executive
Amount: $1.6 million
Purpose: Republican groups including the Progress for America Fund and the Club for Growth, which supported President Bush's re-election and subsequently championed private Social Security accounts
Donor: Robert Rowling, Dallas hotel executive
Amount: $1 million
Purpose: Progress for America Voter Fund
Donor: G.J. Jensen, Irving
Amount: $1 million
Purpose: Club for Growth
DEMOCRAT
Donor: Ms. Pritzker
Amount: $3.5 million
Purpose: Democratic and liberal groups, including ACT Now and Planned Parenthood Votes, to organize registration and get-out-the vote efforts on behalf of Mr. Kerry
Donor: Jonathan McHale and Christine Mattso, Austin high-tech firm
Amount: $3 million
Purpose: The Media Fund, a liberal advocacy group that conducted a $50 million anti-Bush television ad campaign in 21 states and was key to keeping Mr. Kerry's candidacy afloat after he emptied his campaign treasury winning his party's nomination
Donor: James H. Clark, Dallas high-tech entrepreneur
Amount: $1 million
Purpose: The Media Fund
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research