Campaign finance reports show Bouchard campaign has hired ‘hit man’ political firm

The man behind some of the most “reprehensible” — in the words of John McCain — GOP attack ads in recent memory is getting involved in Michigan’s gubernatorial race. According to campaign finance reports, Scott Howell and Company, whose partners were involved with infamous campaigns ads attacking Max Cleland and Harold Ford, has been hired as a media consultant by Oakland County Sheriff and GOP candidate for governor Mike Bouchard.

Political consultants say Bouchard’s hiring of the firm may indicate that Bouchard is preparing to get in the “gutter” in the GOP nomination battle. And the history of Scott Howell and Company’s partners certainly indicates a knock-down, drag-out campaign may be in the offing for this hotly contested race to succeed term limited Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Scott Howell is an acolyte of Lee Atwater — dubbed the “Dark Prince of negative campaigning” by Vanity Fair magazine — and Karl Rove, the Bush strategist who carefully used wedge issues like same-sex marriage to rally the faithful and send them to the polls in droves in 2004 to send Bush back to the White House for another four years. Atwater engineered the infamous Dukakis-shredding Willie Horton ads for George H.W. Bush, with the younger Bush, and Howell, carefully watching the “Dark Prince” wield his doomsday scalpel.

The Chambliss/Cleland race

Take for instance the 2002 Senate battle in Georgia between Saxby Chambliss and Max Cleland, then the incumbent. There, Howell and his team crafted a message that painted Vietnam war veteran Max Cleland — a triple amputee and recipient of the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for valor — as unconcerned about protecting America. One of the ads they used, which can be seen here, invoked images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein to make Cleland appear to be soft on terrorism and unwilling to defend the nation.

That ad was immediately condemned even by Republicans, including Sen. John McCain, who called the ad “worse than disgraceful, it’s reprehensible,” and Sen. Chuck Hagel, who threatened to pay for TV ads criticizing his own party if they didn’t have the commercial pulled. Howell denies having any role in the making of that ad, but he was the media consultant for the campaign, the man who oversees the production of such commercials.

Chambliss bested Cleland.

The Corker/Ford campaign

Another controversial attack ad by Howell was created for the Republican National Committee for Tennessee Senate candidate Bob Corker’s battle with Harold Ford, Jr. in 2006. That ad was widely viewed as playing on old-fashioned fears about black men seeking out white women.

“I met Harold at the Playboy party,” a blond white woman with a squeaky voice and slinking body motions says. The ad closes with the same woman as she tilts her head at the camera, holds her hand to her head to indicate a telephone and whispers, “Harold, call me.”

That focus was labeled racist by many observers in the campaign. At the time the ad began airing, the NAACP of Washington told MSNBC the ad is “a powerful innuendo that plays to pre-existing prejudices about African-American men and white women.”

Liberals were not the only ones bothered by the ad.

Corker himself condemned the ad, which was paid for by the Republican National Committee, calling it “distasteful” and saying the ad “should come down.” Another Republican, former Maine Sen. Bill Cohen, said the ad was “a very serious appeal to a racist sentiment.”

Then-RNC Chair Ken Mehlman told Tim Russert that he did not find the ad inappropriate. Besides, he argued, while the ad was paid for by the RNC, the group had no control over whether to pull it or not because it was produced and placed by an independent group. That independent group was Scott Howell and Company.

Another ad produced by Howell in 2005, on behalf of Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry W. Kilgore in Virginia, featured crime victims declaring that his opponent, Democrat Tim Kaine, would not impose the death penalty even on Adolf Hitler. The Roanoke Times called that ad “an insulting new low” in politics. The tactic, in fact, backfired on the campaign and is widely credited with having helped Kaine win the election.

The Bush/McCain campaign

Perhaps the most infamous dirty trick in recent history involved Heath Thompson, Howell’s partner in the company. Like Atwater, Thompson is a South Carolina legend. He helmed the 2000 South Carolina primary upset of then Gov. George W. Bush over Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

That South Carolina primary campaign featured a host of nasty attacks leveled at McCain, including allegations he had an interracial child and questioning his sexuality. That smear campaign was conducted by push polling and anonymous fliers intended to give the impression that McCain had fathered an interracial child out of wedlock.

The push poll involved calling voters in the state to ask them this question: “Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?” In fact, McCain and his wife Cindy have adopted a Banglideshi child named Bridget from one of Mother Teresa’s orphanages and there were photos of them with the little girl. The push poll was clearly designed to send the false message that McCain had fathered an interracial child out of wedlock — without actually making such a claim positively. That is how push polls operate, by asking leading questions about how someone would feel if they knew a negative thing about someone that isn’t actually asserted.

And while Thompson and other Bush campaign officials deny they had a role in that push poll, such tactics do not come out nowhere. Someone has to create them, approve them and pay for them — and they do so on behalf of a candidate. And Karl Rove, for whom both Howell and Thompson worked for and trained under, is considered the king of the push poll and was tied directly to this particular one, which is widely considered to be one of the dirtiest political tricks ever played.

Bouchard dismisses Howell history

The Bouchard campaign seems unconcerned about this troubling past. Ted Prill, Bouchard’s campaign manager, told Michigan Messenger in an email, “Scott Howell and associates is nationally known as a premier communications firm whose client list includes such conservative leaders as Sen. Jim DeMint and Sen. John Thune.”

When asked repeatedly to comment on their history of highly controversial, often race-tinged ads, Prill preferred to talk about their track record of winning elections, calling Howell and Company “one of the most successful media firms in the country.”

Democratic political consultant Joe DiSano says Bouchard’s contract with Howell and Company can mean only one thing: the sheriff intends to “hit Mr. (Mike) Cox where it hurts.” Cox has consistently polled at the head of the GOP pack for the nomination for the 2010 race for governor.

“With Bouchard safely ensconced in third place, he has to take out the front runner,” DiSano said.

“You don’t hire a firm like Scott Howell and Company unless you are going to go right to the gutter.”