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Created in 2004 as a counterweight to unions’ grass-roots organizing, AFP is known for its hard-hitting TV ads attacking Obama and stirring tea party opposition to his policies. But it also is fully engaged in more local issues and races in 35 states, with a $100 million budget that is three times the 2010 figure.
In Virginia, the group fought the expansion of Metrorail service into Loudoun County. In Detroit, it is opposing construction of a new bridge to Canada, saying it is a poor use of taxpayer money.
AFP bolstered conservatives in Kansas when it helped defeat eight moderate Republican state senators this year. And it countered labor with door-to-door campaigning in Wisconsin to help Gov. Scott Walker (R) survive a recall attempt, at the same time advocating for a large new iron mine.
In Arkansas, Oelke and others are focusing their efforts against about a dozen Democratic state legislators who supported a proposed ballot measure to raise the tax on diesel fuel.
Among them is Robert Thompson, who represents Paragould in the state Senate and says the tax was never even put before voters. Such opposition is a new experience for Thompson, who ran unopposed in his last race here in northeastern Arkansas and faced only a primary opponent four years earlier.
“You didn’t have outside money coming in,” Thompson said, noting that a little money goes a long way in a state legislative race. “If any outside group comes in and spends $10,000, that’s a big chunk of what the candidates are going to spend.”
Arkansas Republicans need to win three seats in the Senate and five in the House to win both chambers. With such a tight balance of power, the new money coming in has created a spending arms race with the state Democratic Party and the national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, whose officials said they hope to spend more than $500,000 in the state.
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