(CNN) - An independent organization established to support Rep. Michele Bachmann's run for president started accepting donations Thursday, according to co-founder Bob Harris.
"Keep Conservatives United," the so-called SuperPAC launched approximately a month ago, plans to run ads pointing to the record of the Minnesota representative, while criticizing Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is expected to jump into the race for the White House.
"Bachmann has the guts to fight the Washington establishment and Rick Perry is just a spoiler," Harris told CNN. "I think his record is not what people think it is."
Harris, a veteran political operative, started his career with the late North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms in 1978.
Under Federal Election Commission rules, a "Super PAC" can accept unlimited donations but must report its contributors and cannot coordinate with a candidate. Other candidates, including Romney and President Barack Obama have SuperPACs established by former aides to help in their fundraising efforts.
Although Harris said he does not have a direct relationship with Bachmann or Perry, the group is taking aim specifically at Perry because of his high poll numbers, Harris said.
A new CNN/ORC International poll released Thursday showed 15 percent of Republican and independent voters who lean toward the GOP picked Perry as their choice for the Republican nomination. Perry was just two points behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, considered the frontrunner in the nominating process. Romney's two point advantage over Perry is within the survey's sampling error.
For now, the group has released a web ad, but Harris said the funds raised will go toward a television ad buy "where we think we can be effective."
"Perry's knocking Bush on spending while Perry's spending even faster. Pretty slick Rick," a web video from the group says. "There is an honest conservative challenging the Washington establishment and she's not Rick Perry."
– CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
From CNN Politics
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We never hit recession again
How much time and money we are spending on elections
End all PACS! This is a way around the contribution laws.
Who cares? Neither Bachman or Perry will ever be president.
Well, now isn't that special... I hope that there is some level of understanding that Bachmann and other conservatives do to understand what people need that the federal government provides. If they want the government (on any level) to get out of the social welfare area, then they need to invent an organization to do that where it will get plenty of money. I just don't see that happening ever because the wealthy and the conservative won't do that because the poor and other that need help should be pulling themselves up by bootstraps that they don't have.
logic in LA
End all PACS! This is a way around the contribution laws.
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Okay. Let's start with Organizing for America.
"Perry's knocking Bush on spending while Perry's spending even faster."
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Gee, what do know? Conservatives who count tax cuts as a form of spending. Unfortuately for Gov. Perry, he cannot draw a similar comparison to Bachman because she has never actually run anything besides her family's business. So, this ad may not be as good as "Keep Conservatives United" might think. It draws attention to Bachmann's flaws just as much as Perry's.
@Bill
Dont underestamate the Perry machine !
He has the backing of big money and big lobby .
Perry / Enron 2012
Fair is Fair wrote:
Okay. Let's start with Organizing for America.
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Agreed. Let's end all SuperPACs. Let's re-instate all of the campaign financing laws that Republicans have fought to have repealed or overturned. Let's re-examine "Citizen's United", which made SuperPACs possible. Agreed. Let's start and not stop until all of them are gone.
Bachmann has been living on Tax money for so long, she wouldn't know how to work for a living. After taking 7 years to finish a 3 year Law School, she started taking government money and hasn't stopped.
Smaller Government.
Have you ever noticed that the countries with the smallest governments are also the same countries with the highest poverty rates, the most concentrated wealth, the most oppressed people, and usually the most violent societies? Haven't you ever noticed that before?
You reach a certain point where the small government does not listen to the people because it does not have enough eyes and ears to notice, not enough hands and feet to act on their behalf. Instead the smaller governments can only hear the voices of a few, and act on behalf of those same few people. The wealthy.
Perry: I'm 'supposed to' run for president
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Governer, your first priority should be to rectify your state's financial troubles, instead of cutting and running off on the campaign trail. You cannot blame someone else for your state's budget shortfall. The Great Recesssion did not help, but neither did your tax cuts, tax credits, and your destructive tax policy as a whole.
Bachmann's farm involvement gets more money than her seat in congress pays. Sure wouldn't want her to do without her expensive new mansion (financed thru Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae for even more from the gov. that she hates but wants to be a part of).
Remember people.... the real problem is the clown in the Whitehouse. Keep your focus on this failure and what YOU will do to save us from his 4 years of miserable failure (3 past, 1 future based on past non-performance). Don't destroy each other in the process and do the buffoon a favor.
Bachmann, Perry, and Romney are all unelectable, they have done everything that the tea party yells against and these suckers keep giving them their money,
Romney made MA a nanny state with Romney care and is a morman
Perry mandated teenage girls get an HPV vaccine and took private land to sell to foreign companies to build toll roads
Bachmann took all forms of "handouts" in her personal life and representing her district.
All the above front runners signed pledges and that really makes them all unelectable!
Anyone who pushes and votes for any of them to get the nomination........probably voted for W twice......hence you really are easily misled.
Just go to you tube and search stupid Michele Bauchman. How can any sane person even consider voting for this flake.
For those that don't remember, Jesse Helms was a racist Republican U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was against integration, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act. Those are just the "highlights" of his terribly racist political career. Look him up for more.
Point being: This Bob Harris guy must be a real class act to have worked for Helms. Now, he's forming a SuperPAC for Bachmann.
i don't care what the party is. . .
I'm support transparency and economic and social equality.
feel the shift . . . coming. . .?
nunti sunya
Does anyone even realize that we are the people anymore? What ever happened that a PAC has more rights than a citizen? Oh ya the supreme Court says corporations and PACS have rights just like a voter. Once again thank you Chamber of Commerce!
It's amazing.....Rudy NYC has more advice than a Klansman @ a NAACP meeting! Pretty amazing for a man w/a life time resume reading; Experience: Life Long Welfare Recipitant Expert!
All the paid DNC bloggers had better begin bashing Perry w/their lies.....because Perry will be Obambi's foe in 2012....Casey Anthony could poll higher than Obambi in 2012! Where is your fearless leader? Oh yeah, he's hiding in Martha's Vineyard......probably working on his new film titled; "Obama Killed Usama & the U S Economy"!
Perry also has the Log Cabin guys on his side (check out Rick's little closet profile sometime: no joke, he's a homosexual). Maybe Micheel's husband can "consult" with him.
You want a Constitutional Amendment? CAMPAIGN FINANCE AMENDMENT. It's time for the Constitution to protect the gov't as being of, for and by the PEOPLE. No more non-living, non-voting, undying, unfeeling entities that don't breath, don't repoduce, don't have families, don't have mids of their own, etc., giving money to ANYONE or spending it on them indirectly. PERIOD. END OF STORY. You wat a balanced budget, smaller average deficits over time, smaller or no national debt, higher employment, etc.? THAT is how we end up with it. Kill the corporate plutocracy NOW.
It will take more than a super-PAC to get this woman into the WH. She makes up stories that turn out to be wrong, wants to investigate how "American" Congressional members are, refused to compromise on the debt problem (allowing many of us to lose 1/5 of our life savings in the current stock market), wants to destroy the separation of church and state while professing to be a Tea Partier. She is as hyprocrical as Palin, and much more dangerous. People who have "visions" should not be operating the nuclear button.
It will take more than a super-PAC to get this woman into the WH. She makes up stories that turn out to be wrong, wants to investigate how "American" Congressional members are, refused to compromise on the debt problem (allowing many of us to lose 1/5 of our life savings in the current stock market), wants to destroy the separation of church and state while professing to be a Tea Partier. She is as hyprocrical as Palin, and much more dangerous. People who have "visions" should not be operating the nuclear button.
My new Super Pac............Angry voters for angry candidates. We'll find the most contentious candidate money can buy.