LANSING – Freedom’s Defense Fund, a super PAC headquartered in Virginia, has made independent expenditures supporting just two candidates this fall: Kerry Bentivolio and Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, the Tea Party candidate who received nearly universal condemnation for his “legitimate rape” remarks.
“If Michigan voters are seeing commercials from a shadowy group called the Freedom’s Defense Fund, it’s important they know exactly what this group stands for,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. “Unlike almost every other Republican organization in the country, the Freedom’s Defense Fund is still backing Todd Akin. The only other candidate they’re supporting with an independent expenditure this fall is Kerry Bentivolio, who shares Akin’s extreme views on women’s health.”
Bentivolio’s extreme policy agenda also includes the following:
- Phasing out Social Security and Medicare,
- Raising taxes on the middle class,
- Slashing veterans’ health care, and
- Repealing the 17th Amendment, which allows voters to elect U.S. senators.
Michigan Democrats might be familiar with the Freedom’s Defense Fund from its involvement in the Republican presidential primary in February. Talking Points Memo revealed the super PAC paid for robocalls to Michigan Democrats that encouraged them to vote for Rick Santorum, calling it “a vote to embarrass Gov. Rick Snyder and Mitt Romney.”
“Bentivolio has yet to receive any financial support from mainstream Republican groups, but he’s getting a hand from a group that urged voters to ‘embarrass’ Rick Snyder and Mitt Romney,” said Brewer. “That’s evidence that Bentivolio is too extreme, even for members of his own party.”
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