Kerry attacker now a Crist backer

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Sat, Mar. 11, 2006

GOVERNOR'S RACE
Kerry attacker now a Crist backer
A contributor with ties to Attorney General Charlie Crist has given $500,000 to an organization being headed by the same GOP consultant who helped Swift Boat veterans attack John Kerry.
BY GARY FINEOUT
[e-mail]

TALLAHASSEE - In a sign that the race for governor may become nastier than imagined, the same Republican consultant who helped Vietnam War veterans attack John Kerry in 2004 has put together a political committee in Florida and has already raised at least $508,000.

Almost all the money for the group -- $500,000 -- has come from a single contributor, Cape Coral real estate executive Greg Eagle, a supporter of Attorney General Charlie Crist's bid for governor. Eagle's son Dane is on the payroll of the Crist campaign and travels with Crist to campaign events.

Yet the Crist campaign maintains it knows nothing about Floridians for a Better and Brighter Future, which according to Internal Revenue Service records was organized in late December, and whose president is Christopher LaCivita, a veteran GOP consultant and strategist.
(snip)

IRS records show the organization is headed by LaCivita, a former director of the Virginia Republican Party who was a consultant for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the 527 organization that ran television ads during the 2004 presidential election assailing Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's record as a war hero.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14071524.htm

http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/Pictures/Persons/091601/091601-184683.jpg

Chris LaCivita
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~snip~
An occasional collaborator with Mr. Ginsberg, Chris LaCivita, is also working for the group, advising on media strategy. Mr. LaCivita was political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2002 and now works for the DCI Group, a Washington political strategy firm whose partners include Charles Francis, a longtime friend of President Bush from Texas and Tom Synhorst, an adviser to the Bush campaign in 2000, who was an architect of the campaign's effort in the Iowa caucuses.
Mr. LaCivita said yesterday that he worked as a private contractor for DCI and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and that there was no coordination between the firm and the group.

"Obviously, I don't work for the Bush campaign," he said.

Mr. LaCivita described his role as providing advice on the news media and placing advertisements. Asked to describe how close his involvement was or how Mr. Ginsberg was involved, Mr. LaCivita referred calls to a spokesman for Swift Boat Veterans, which declined to comment.
(snip/...)

Via Talking Points Memo
from the N.Y. Times

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/003332.php

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. and the culture of corruption lives on

[neoblues]

2. Lying Liars and those who advise them. nt.

[rodeodance]

3. whow--to me, this is LOT of mula! $500,000