‘SWIFT BOAT’ VETERAN: A conservative anti-tax group Wednesday expanded its ad campaign against Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, helped by a donor who bankrolled 2004 ads questioning Democrat John Kerry’s war record. The Club for Growth is spending $175,000 to keep running ads in Iowa on the former Arkansas governor’s tax record. In the past three weeks, the group has spent $550,000 to criticize Huckabee. ClubForGrowth.net received $200,000 from Bob Perry, a Houston homebuilder who gave nearly $4.5 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth for anti-Kerry ads.
MISTAKES ON LIST: Two black South Carolina ministers listed by Barack Obama’s campaign as endorsing him say they did no such thing, and at least two others affirmed their support only after being contacted by the campaign when questions were raised about their endorsements. This month, Obama’s campaign released a list of what it said were nearly 130 pastors in South Carolina endorsing him. But when contacted by The Associated Press, several said they had yet to decide who would get their vote.
GIULIANI’S HEALTH: A week after a severe headache landed Rudy Giuliani in a St. Louis hospital, his campaign released the first statement from one of his doctors, who pronounced him “in very good health.” The statement said the doctors in St. Louis gave Giuliani a CT-MRI of the brain, an ultrasound of the carotid arteries and a spinal fluid evaluation. “These tests all came back normal,” said Dr. Valentin Fuster of Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York.
— Tribune news services
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