Swift Boat Money Man Reunites with Swift Boat Media Firm

By Paul Kiel - September 19, 2006, 6:39 PM

The major powers behind the 2004 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign have reunited. The Economic Freedom Fund is solely backed by Bob Perry, the principal funder of the Swift Boat Vets. And now the group is working with the same media firm that produced those ads.

The firm, Stevens, Reed, Curcio, and Potholm, boasts a number of GOP Senate, House, and gubenatorial clients in its history, including the National Republican Campaign Committee, Sen. George Allen (R-VA), Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN), and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). This July, the group got in hot water for an ad it ran against Ohio Senate candidate Sherrod Brown. The ad, which hit Brown for being weak on national security, featured a doctored image of the twin towers with photogenic smoke hovering around them.

According to documents and local television managers in Georgia and Iowa, SRCP has been responsible for buying the airtime for the Economic Freedom Fund's television ads -- attacks against Reps. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), Leonard Boswell (D-IA), Jim Marshall (D-GA), and John Barrow (D-GA). It's not clear if the firm actually produced the ads, or was merely working with Meridian Pacific, the well-connected California consulting firm that works with the group, to get the ads placed. Neither SRCP or Meridian Pacific returned my calls to explain their involvement.

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