Conducts media campaigns charging Republicans with wrongdoing
American Family Voices (AFV) defines itself as “a broad network of organizations -- including civil rights, environmental, women’s rights, consumer advocacy and health care organizations, and multi-issue think tanks.” Aiming to serve as “a strong voice for middle and low income families,” AFV “invests in strategic messaging and research projects” -- i.e., advertisements and reports -- “that help build a communications echo chamber for our [progressive] side.” AFV does not, however, reveal which organizations it counts as members of its coalition -- a fact that has prompted The New York Times to characterize AFV as “secretive.”
In an effort to bring political corruption by Republicans to public awareness, AFV’s Campaign for a Cleaner Congress “works to expose how corporate lobbying has corrupted our democratic system, and to explain how simple reforms can get Americans the cleaner Congress they deserve.”
In a related initiative, AFV has produced numerous political advertisements condemning alleged Republican malfeasance. For example, in 2006 its “Indicted” ads targeted “Congressional districts … represented by close allies of indicted, disgraced former Majority Leader Tom DeLay,” including Representatives Jim Gerlach (PA), Bob Ney (OH), and Tom Reynolds (NY). In addition, AFV collaborated with the Public Campaign Action Fund “to air television ads in [Republican] Roy Blunt’s district that detail how the money-laundering Tom DeLay … sent $150,000 to Rep. Blunt, then Blunt funneled DeLay’s money to his son’s campaign and a company that hired Delay’s wife.”
At the height of the Enron scandal in 2002, AFV produced a commercial accusing President Bush of insider trading, a charge derived from the fact that Bush had sold his shares of Harken Energy stock in the 1980s prior to that company’s report of fiscal losses. A subsequent investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission found AFV’s allegation to be without merit. According to journalist Byron York, “the Harken resurrection was the result of a well-planned, well-funded, and well-executed campaign to damage the president politically at a time when his approval ratings seemed almost unchallengeably high. Those involved in the effort include former officials in the Clinton White House, veterans of liberal interest groups, sympathetic journalists, and some of the nation's richest labor unions.”
The Clinton official to whom York was referring is Mike Lux, who established AFV in 2000 and currently serves as its President. Lux also co-founded Progressive Strategies, a consulting firm that works to create and maintain public-relations campaigns for leftist political leaders and organizations. In addition, he co-founded the Progressive Donor Network which works in close alliance with interest groups like People for the American Way (PFAW), Emily's List, and NARAL Pro-Choice America. Prior to that, he was PFAW's Senior Vice President for Political Action, and a Director for both the Proteus Fund and the Arca Foundation. In the Clinton administration, Lux served as a Special Assistant to the President for Public Liaison. He also managed the advertising campaign against the impeachment of President Clinton.
In 2003, AFV ran television ads in Washington, D.C., New Hampshire, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin, accusing the Bush administration of having granted no-bid contracts to the Halliburton energy and construction company for post-war reconstruction projects in Iraq. In response, Halliburton (which had worked for the military for more than 60 years, regardless of which political party controlled the White House) issued a press release calling the ads "deceptive and apparently ... designed to further a political agenda.” Moreover, said Halliburton, the contract to do the work in Iraq was competitively bid for in 2001.
AFV continues to assert that the Bush administration and its friends are profiting financially from the Iraq War: “It’s time that Congress comes clean with the American people about the tax dollars being misspent on unsupervised, sweetheart deals for the administration’s cronies.”
In 2006 AFV opposed President Bush’s appointment of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, on grounds that he “has a long and detailed paper trail, a history of judicial decisions 15 years long – and it ain’t pretty. … [T]here are no indications that this nominee has any moderate inclinations or progressive friends to vouch for him that he might be reasonable on some issues. … We find it revolting that President Bush would … name a Supreme Court nominee with such an abysmal record on civil rights and racial discrimination.”
Today AFV seeks to use cutting-edge, computer-based technologies to facilitate outreach to American leftists and to “buil[d] the capacity of the netroots.” Modeling its efforts on those of Moveon.org, AFV aspires to “expand the ability of the progressive community to raise money, recruit volunteers, and shape the political debate in this country” through the use of new media. Toward these ends, AFV has partnered with Actblue, a “Democract action” online fundraising group, and BlogPAC, which provides financial backing for online activists and leftwing bloggers.
AFV’s founding in 2000 was financed by at least $800,000 in seed money from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); some reports have placed the figure as high as $1.5 million. AFSCME remains AFV's largest financial backer. According to Mike Lux, AFV also receives strong support from such labor unions as the International Association of Machinists, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the United Food and Commercial Workers. Unwilling to identify other contributors by name, Lux has simply said that additional AFV funding derives from “your classic progressive donors.” According to the website of Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R – Colorado), AFV also receives money from George Soros.
