What a surprise.
It turns out there is a link between the anti-Tom Knox 527 committee and the Bob Brady campaign -- or at least there was until yesterday.
Ken Smuckler, an aide to the Brady campaign, fessed up to trying to organize a 527 earlier this year. His admission led to Smuckler's dismissal from the Brady campaign.
These 527 committees are all the rage in federal elections. They are (supposedly) independent committees which raise money to espouse a candidate's election. Usually, they do not run positive ads about their favored candidate, but to do toxic hit ads and mailers against his opponent.
The 527 committees have two advantages. They are not bound by the campaigning spending limits imposed by law. and they get to do the dirty work of doing hits on an opponent, while the candidate they support gets to act upbeat, positive and pure as virgin snow.
You can expect a lot of this stuff in the weeks to come: 527-hit ads, mailers, robocalls -- all of them either anonymous or from some front group.
When it comes to this stuff, my advice is to follow the Napoleonic Code: Guilty until proven innocent. If you are on the receiving end of one of these messages, ask yourself this question: Who is this designed to help?
Once you figure that out, you can safely assume that candidate is behind the attack -- despite denials.
-- Tom Ferrick
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Dirty Tricks, Inc.
Authors
Great Expectations is a civic engagement project brought to you by The Inquirer and the University of Pennsylvania. Check out the Great Expectations Web site.
Chris Satullo is an Inquirer columnist and former editor of The Inquirer's Editorial Page. He was a founder of the Great Expectations project, which focuses on civic engagement and the issues in Philadelphia's 2007 mayoral race.
Tom Ferrick, a former Inquirer reporter, worked on the Great Expectations project throughout 2007 and into 2008.Other members of the Editorial Board will be weighing in on the blog, as will Harris Sokoloff and Jodie Chester Lowe, members of the Great Expectations team.
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