http://mycn2.com/politics/new-outside-gop-group-restoring-america-to-air-tv-ads-in-ky-governor-race

Publication Date: September 26, 2011

Author: Kenny Colston

New outside GOP group 'Restoring America' to air TV ads in Ky. governor race

09/26/2011 02:44 PM

An outside independent expenditure group based in Ohio will begin airing TV ads this week in support of Kentucky Republican gubernatorial candidate David Williams, according to public filings.

The group, called Restoring America, filed paperwork Monday with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance. It lists Columbus, Ohio, attorney Jim Rutledge as its chairman and accountant Mike BlankenBecler, also of Columbus, as its treasurer. It hasn’t filed paperwork about who has funded the group. And the address listed on the group’s filings with KREF is that of a UPS Store in Lexington, Ky.

Restoring America is using the Strategy Group for Media to place the ads, which will run in the Louisville, Lexington, Northern Kentucky and Henderson cable markets. It will spend $177,000 in those markets over the next three weeks, according to public ad files with Insight Communications, which is cn|2’s parent company.

Columbus is the headquarters for the Strategy Group, which has been increasingly involved in creating and placing TV and radio ads for Kentucky candidates and groups. Last year, Strategy Group ran the media portion of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul’s campaign and is currently running Republican Attorney General candidate Todd P’Pool’s media.

A spokeswoman for the Strategy Group, Rachel Ruetty, declined to comment on who was funding Restoring America.

But the group is set to support Williams in its ads, while also attacking Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, who is running for re-election.

The group won’t be required to disclose it’s contributions or expenditure until mid-October, according to the Kentucky Registry.

The new group’s involvement comes after the Republican Governors Association has stopped running ads in Kentucky. It aired commercials backing Williams’ behalf in July.

And an outside Democratic group that is attacking Williams, called Kentucky Family Values, has been off the air for a few weeks after running a barrage of ads.

-Reporting by Kenny Colston

About Kenny Colston

Kenny Colston is a political reporter for cn|2 Politics. Colston formerly served as editor of the Kentucky Kernel, the student-run newspaper at the University of Kentucky. You can reach him at kenny.colston@mycn2.com or 502-357-4255.

Comments

  • Bob wrote on September 26, 2011 10:27 PM :

    Maybe it’s David Williams’ pappaw again.

  • Ole Scout wrote on September 27, 2011 12:30 PM :

    This is a tactic the Palestinians used against the Israelis – poison the well; when the Grand Mufti (Mohamed Hussein) told the Palestinians to leave; they contaminated all the land and water they left behind.
    Leave it to republican’ts to emulate terrorists.

  • Open your Eyes wrote on September 28, 2011 07:51 AM :

    Everyone is screaming foul over a “secret” (ha-ha) out of state organization supporting Williams. But, have you considered what you may not know about the supporters of Beshear? How many of those who supported him in the last race received sweet deals from our “fearless” Governor? http://www.followthemoney.org shows over 1.4 million being contributed to Beshear by lobbyist and Layers in the last election, and over 1 million of his total contributions coming from sources out of state. Your article states that $177,000 is what the organization is spending on behalf of Williams. Seems minimal compared to the over 1 million that was paid by out of state Beshear supporters. How many more unemployed workers, closed businesses and families on welfare are needed in Kentucky before it wakes up?

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