The American Future Fund, a 501(c)4 group that funded several attack ads against Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, has filed information with the Federal Election Commission indicating that they have just spent another $17,500 for a second round of negative mail against Republican conservative businessman and former Judge Bob Corlew.
Corlew and businessman John Rose are in a tight race in the 6th Congressional District to fill the seat being vacated by Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06). Black is running for Governor.
The Tennessee Star reported on the first batch of attack mail on July 13.
In 2016 AFF spent $6.7 million in attacks against Trump, describing him as a “fraud,” “a phony,” and a “B.S. artist.”
The group recently ran negative ads against South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, a staunch and early Trump supporter. Trump appeared at a campaign rally for McMaster the night before his runoff election in South Carolina last month. McMaster won the runoff and is expected to easily carry the state in November.
The American Future Fund was founded by Nick Ryan in 2007 and is based in Iowa.
The group has spent funds opposing other pro-Trump candidates during this election cycle.
Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill says that the two mail pieces have been virtually identical and have attacked Corlew for being a career politician, apparently reaching back to his days in Student Government in college to claim he’s spent 50 years in politics. Campaigns and their ‘friends’ stretch the truth when they get desperate, but depicting Bob Corlew with the U.S. Capitol behind him to claim he’s part of the ‘swamp’ is ridiculous since he has never, ever served in Washington, DC,” Gill notes.
“This is the sort of flimsy negative campaigning that disgusts voters, and it should,” Gill adds.
In 1984, Corlew was elected General Sessions Judge at the age of thirty-one, making him one of the youngest judges in Tennessee at the time. In 1990, he was elected Chancery Court Judge overseeing civil cases in Cannon and Rutherford Counties. He served in this role until his retirement from the bench in 2014.
A Corlew campaign staffer takes issue with the “hit piece” for claiming that Corlew voted to give himself a raise when he actually voted AGAINST a pay raise for county commissioners during his brief stint on the Rutherford County Commission and the pay raise didn’t even go into effect until Corlew was a Judge.
“John Rose needs to stop hiding behind his dark money anti-Trump cronies and step up with any legitimate criticism of Bob Corlew himself, but he prefers to hide in the shadows like his out of state political attack dogs,” the staffer pointed out.
The biggest potential loss in this Republican primary for conservatives is the nomination of John Rose to replace Diane Black in Congress. Given the enthusiasm of liberal Democrats bundlers in the sixth district making maximum contributions to the Rose campaign there is simply no telling how liberal Rose will be.
I just hope and pray conservatives in the sixth district are energized and aware so my worst fears don’t come true. Judd Matheny would be best but at this point I’m willing to take a chance on Corlew – anybody but Rose.