Swift Boat group's backer joins Romney campaign
WASHINGTON -- The primary donor of an independent group that raised questions about Senator John F. Kerry during the 2004 presidential election has signed on to raise money for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's GOP presidential campaign.
Bob Perry, a Houston home builder, is named as a member of Romney's Texas Leadership Team in an invitation for a fund-raising event in Dallas on March 26.
Perry has earned a reputation for his willingness to finance the political activities of "527 groups," nonprofit organizations named after the federal tax code that applies to them. He gained notoriety for the $4.5 million he donated to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of Vietnam War veterans who questioned Kerry's military credentials.
He funded similar pro-GOP groups in 2006, including the Economic Freedom Fund, which ran ads attacking Democrats in Georgia, Iowa, and West Virginia, and A Stronger America, which financed ads attacking Democrat Mike Hatch in his Minnesota gubernatorial bid last year.
In 2006, Perry was the largest political donor in Texas.
Kerry has neither forgiven nor forgotten the group and its financiers. In a recent hearing on the nomination of one donor, Sam Fox, as ambassador to Belgium, Kerry questioned the nominee about the levels of "personal destruction" in modern politics among other topics.
When news of Perry's decision to sign on with Romney made it to Kerry's Senate office, his spokesman, David Wade, said it was "appalling but not surprising that a Texas tycoon famous for funding lies would now bankroll a presidential campaign built on flip-flopping and fiction." 