Economic Freedom Fund (EFF)
A Conservative 527 Group


 

According to Wikipedia:
With a hefty with a hefty $5 million donation, the Economic Freedom Fund (EFF), a 527 group was started in 2004 by Bob J. Perry, a Texas homebuilder who had close ties to White House advisor Karl Rove and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Robert Perry was the financier for the now infamous "Swift Boat" ads that attacked Democratic Sen. John Kerry's war record during the 2006 presidential election. Only one person is officially associated with the group: Charles H. Bell Jr.,a lawyer from California, who is the general counsel for the California Republican Party and the Republican National Lawyers Association's vice president for the election education advisory council. All of EFF's campaign ads to date attack Democratic candidates or supported conservative Republican candidates.
In 2006, the new group which lists Perry as its sole donor spent slightly more than $500,000 on television ads and mailings criticizing Democratic Reps. Jim Marshall of Georgia and Alan Mollohan of West Virginia. A grand total of $2,051,457 was spent during the 2006 Federal elections.

This was the fund's official website for several years.
Content is from the site's archived pages as well as other outside sources.

 

Economic Freedom Fund
P.O. Box 191005
Sacramento, CA 95819
916.296.0844

 

WHO WE ARE

Today Americans find themselves at a critical junction – we can either take steps forward and continue on a path of effective economic development or turn back the clock to higher taxes and burdensome government regulation.
To help us get through this crucial period in time, we have taken a proactive step of setting up a fund called the Economic Freedom Fund.

The specific purposes of this fund are to educate the public concerning issues related to the preservation of economic freedom, the promotion of economic growth and prosperity for the people of the United States of America, which purposes are consistent with Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code.

~~~~~

Jump ahead to the 2020:
Where are the players from Economic Freedom Fund (EFF) now?
Bob Perry,the wealthy Houston homebuilder who shunned publicity while generously bankrolling GOP candidates and becoming a force in a new era of lavish spending in American politics died in 2013 at 80.
Karl Rove, now a Fox News contributor, threw in the towel regarding President Trump's chances at re-election.. In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, the Republican strategist said that Donald Trump’s poll numbers are simply too dismal to end in victory on election night. And Karl Rove was right.
Tom DeLay: In January 2006 DeLay stepped down from his post as majority leader, and in June of that year he resigned from the House. In 2010, DeLay was found guilty of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was sentenced to three years in prison but was granted bail pending his appeal. In 2013 a Texas court overturned the conviction and formally acquitted DeLay. During the start of the 2016 Republican primary Delay wanted Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich to stay in the race as long as possible to take on Donald Trump, warning that the Republican front-runner "could do great damage" to the party if he is the nominee. DeLay also warned about Trump starting a trade war with other countries, remarking that Republican officials would be the first people to deal with his actions. He is the founder of First Principles LLC, a consulting firm that works with a range of political organizations in the fields of grass roots, new media, communications and issue advocacy.

The 2020 elections from the presidential all the way down the ticket has been crazy. The Covid 19 pandemic wrecked havoc with the voting as we have known it. Enormous amounts of money has been spent on both sides. During 2020, two Trump PACs which are joint ventures of the Republican Party and the Trump campaign had spent enormous sums. The Trump Victory PAC shelled out $144 million, while the Trump Make America Great Again Committee has spent $327 million, more than the Democratic National Committee. The the time Fall had rolled around the Republicans were in money trouble. Biden and the Democrats raised far more money in the last quarter before the election. Looking at overall spending in the 2020 election cycle, Democrats were actually ahead of Republicans, with 67 percent of all candidate, party and outside money having been spent on Democratic causes.

The 2020 election has not been officially called, although Biden has 290 electoral votes with three states still not called. Trump has only 214 with not chance of reaching the necessary 270. Biden also won the popular vote with more than 4 million votes then Trump. But the General Services Administration, headed by Trump appointee Emily Murphy, has resisted signing the paperwork that would give Biden and his team access to millions of dollars in transitions funds, as well as official access to government officials and equipment to prepare the incoming administration, according to The Washington Post. Trump continues to refuse to concede the election to Biden by citing baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.

In my town, when Biden was announced as the winner on Saturday, the atmosphere was charged with excitement. People were expressing their joy with loud cheers, honking car horns, and spontaneous celebrations. It was a memorable moment. As the legal proceedings concerning the election results unfold, Biden carries on as president-elect, amidst Trump's allegations of a rigged election. Today, while maintaining social distance and wearing masks, I had a conversation with my neighbor. We deliberately avoided discussing politics, a topic that seems to have exhausted everyone's interest. The conversation turned to home improvements, and my neighbor asked for the contact details of the experts who had recently installed our pool and hot tub. Their work had been widely admired by all who saw it. I had initially been hesitant after finding them through a simple search for above ground pools & hot tubs in our area, but their excellent work on our project made me glad I chose them. Royal Pools & Spas managed everything efficiently, from the selection of the designs to the final installation. I was more than happy to recommend them. After our chat, I went on my regular jog, taking a moment to step away from the ongoing political discourse.

~~~~~

Nasty Campaign Ad Spending Beats Nice 10:1

BY AMY CLARK / cbsnews.com
UPDATED ON: NOVEMBER 1, 2006 / 1:14 AM / AP

So far this campaign, the political parties have exposed voters to nearly $160 million in ads attacking congressional candidates. How much spent painting a positive image? About $17 million.
That's just over $1 of nice for every $10 of nasty.

The message ingrained in such a disparity in numbers: Don't vote for a candidate; vote against the opponent.

Negative ads are the coin of the realm in politics. With one week left in the campaign, voters will continue to be bombarded on television, in the mail and over the phone as political strategists make their closing arguments to a shrinking pool of those who haven't made up their minds.

Under the terms of a 2002 campaign finance law, these messages are independent expenditures that the parties can undertake only if they do not coordinate with the candidates they are seeking to help. This type of spending by the parties on congressional campaigns is 54 percent higher than it was for the same period in the 2004 campaign season, according to data compiled by the Federal Election Commission.

It is also decidedly more negative. In 2004, the parties spent about $6 on ads in favor of congressional candidates for every $5 spent opposing candidates.

At this point, Republicans have spent $87.5 million to oppose candidates and Democrats have spent $72.6 million. But the edge on negativity, according to independent analyses of the ads, goes to the GOP.

"Negative ads only work in two situations — when you are incredibly desperate or when you're incredibly close to the end," said Ray Seidelman, a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College who has studied political advertising and voter turnout.

For example, the political ad in Tennessee against Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford that features the blonde with a come-hither look received widespread attention. Critics denounced the ad financed by the Republican National Committee as appealing to racism because it suggested Ford, who is black, dated white women. The ad is no longer running.
Other ads are less subtle:

The National Republican Congressional Committee has run an ad in Ohio that accuses Democrat John Cranley, a Cincinnati City councilman, of judgment that ranges from "bad to bizarre." The ad cites his vote last year on a nonbinding resolution that asked the police department to ban the use of stun guns on children under 11 years old. The measure failed 5-4 after the police department indicated that a stun gun would be an appropriate response if a child was armed.

The NRCC tried to place an ad in New York against Democrat Michael Arcuri, the district attorney in Oneida County, accusing him of calling a sex hotline while on county business. But records show that the call to the 800 number lasted only seconds and that the number has the same last seven digits as the phone number for the state Department of Criminal Justice Services. The Arcuri campaign said a colleague of Arcuri's mistakenly placed the call.

An analysis by the Annenberg Public Policy Center's nonpartisan FactCheck.org concluded that negative ads aired by the NRCC had a "pronounced tendency to be petty and personal."

Rep. Tom Reynolds, the New York Republican who is chairman of the NRCC, said the party has chosen to run opposition ads to counter "a full slate of undistinguished Democrat challengers campaigning on national issues with cookie-cutter talking points."

"The best way for us to overcome this is to draw contrasts and offer voters a true choice," Reynolds said recently at the National Press Club. "So, through television, radio and mail, we are saying to the voter: This is who the alternative on the ballot is; this is where he or she stands on the issues that matter in your community; and this is what he or she has done that is relevant to being qualified for federal office."

Democrats are running their share of negative ads. For the most part, those ads link Republican candidates to President Bush, exploiting the president's low approval ratings. One ad airing in Pennsylvania cites October as the bloodiest month in Iraq and accuses Republican incumbent Rep. Jim Gerlach of blindly following Bush. After the electronic message sex scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., some Democratic ads connected candidates to Republican congressional leaders who were challenged for failing to address the problem.

Meanwhile, the candidates' campaigns are generally running more positive or self-promotional ads.

"It's good cop, bad cop," said Evan Tracey, chief operating officer at TNSMI/Campaign Media Analysis Group, a company that tracks political advertising. "The parties can throw the sharp elbows and give the candidates plausible deniability."

Independent groups not affiliated with the parties are adding to the negative tone on the airwaves, in mailboxes and over the phone. Labor unions, nonprofit organizations and obscure groups are reaching out to voters in competitive races with negative messages.

One group, the Economic Freedom Fund, has been running ads and sending mail against Democratic candidates in Georgia, Iowa and West Virginia. In one mailing, the group accuses Democratic Rep. Leonard Boswell of Iowa of voting to let lawyers "sue Little League for scrapes and bruises during a game." At issue was Boswell's vote in 2004 against legislation that would have provided nonprofit athletic organizations with immunity from some negligence lawsuits. Critics of the bill argued that it would have affected other litigation, including civil rights claims.

Strategists and political ad analysts generally agree that negative ads work because negative opinions linger with voters longer than positive opinions.

"But it works only in the narrow sense," Seidelman said. "In the long run what it does is create a tremendous amount of distrust in the process."
JIM KUHNHENN

Ads funded by EFF (Economic Freedom Fund )

In 2006
All of EFF's campaign ads to date attack Democratic candidates.
The attacks have been on:
John Barrow (D-GA)
Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
Baron Hill (challenger in Indiana's 9th District)
Jim Marshall (D-GA)
Alan Mollohan (D-WV)
Darlene Hooley (D-OR

John Barrow D-Georgia

Congressional Leadership Fund claims Rep. John Barrow (D-GA) “stood with Obama for Obamacare,” but Barrow voted against the Affordable Care Act and currently supports amending the law while acknowledging that “all or nothing” repeal would be harmful. The ad also mislead about the health care law’s effect on Medicare – it didn’t cut benefits – and about the Recovery Act, which helped prevent an even deeper recession. Furthermore, Georgia had gained over 80,000 jobs since the end of the devastating recession that’s responsible for millions of job losses nationwide, even though the ad tries to blame Georgia’s economic difficulties on Barrow.

Wikipedia:
John Barrow D-Georgia was the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 12th congressional district from 2005 to 2015. Barrow's 2006 candidacy faced not only the mid-decade redistricting but also two visits by President George W. Bush to the district, campaigning by national figures on behalf of Burns (including RNC Chair Ken Mehlman and U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert) and popular Governor Sonny Perdue's reelection bid.
Barrow faced Burns in the general election and won by only 864 votes — the narrowest margin of any Democratic incumbent nationwide. However, he trounced Burns in Chatham and Richmond counties, home to Democratic-leaning Savannah and Augusta, respectively (as well as more than half the district's population), by a total of over 17,000 votes.


 

 

Jim Marshall D-Georgia

Wikipedia:
Jim Marshall D-Georgia was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 2003 to 2011. Early in 2005, the Georgia state legislature, now controlled by Republicans, approved a new map of congressional districts. The Macon-based district was significantly redrawn and renumbered once again as the 8th. The reconfigured 8th was considerably more Republican than its predecessor, even though it included 60% of Marshall's former territory as well as all of Macon. Marshall's Republican opponent was former U.S. Congressman Mac Collins. Collins had represented a district in the southern Atlanta suburbs during his first stint in Congress, but moved back to his native Butts County after it was drawn into the reconfigured 8th. Collins benefited from two visits by President Bush, massive amounts of national party and PAC funding and Perdue's presence atop the ticket.
Marshall defeated Collins 51%–49%. It was the second-closest any Democratic incumbent came to losing his seat to a Republican in the 2006 elections.



 

 

Alan Mollohan D-West Virginia

United States House of Representatives elections, 2006 won with 64.3 of the vote. served in the United States House of Representatives from 2000- 2008. On February 28, 2006, the National Legal and Policy Center filed a 500-page ethics complaint against Mollohan, alleging that the congressman misrepresented his assets on financial disclosure forms. In January 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice stated that no charges would be filed against Mollohan and that it had closed its investigation




 

 

Baron Hill (challenger in Indiana's 9th District)

Wikipedia:
In September 2006, the group may have violated a 1988 Indiana law that bars companies from placing a prerecorded, automated call to a person unless a real person, in a live conversation, first speaks and gets permission to play the recorded portion of the call.
The calls were in support of incumbent Representative Mike Sodrel, and were a classic push poll, designed to smear Sodrel's opponent, Baron Hill, while appearing to be a legitimate survey.
After at least seven complaints were made to the state attorney general's office, the campaign notified the office that they had halted the calls.
The Indiana law allows for a penalty of up to $5,000 per violation (per call made, not per complaint).

 

Conservative Candidates Supported by EFF

 

Bob Beauprez

Won his race.

 

 

Jim Gibbons

Won his race.


 




EconomicFreedomFund.com