New group to run ads

A Republican leader who worked with a top Democratic Party figure to run ads against GOP gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne has resigned his post, but a new group has taken up the anti-Byrne ads in the Republican runoff. tiffany charms

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The ads try to brand Byrne as a former Democrat who hasn’t changed political stripes, but the GOP leader who conceived them, Andy Renner of Linden, was viewed by top Republicans as too close to Democrats himself. ghd mk4

Under pressure, Renner stepped down as chairman of the Marengo County Republican Party after the primary June 1. He said he has no connection to the Conservative Coalition for Alabama, the new group running ads blasting Byrne in the advance of the Republican runoff Tuesday.

“I don’t even know who they are,” he said Wednesday. True Religion sale

Neither do state election officials. The group has not filed an organizational statement with the secretary of state showing who organized it and where it is getting its money.

Byrne called on the state attorney general Wednesday to investigate whether the group has violated state campaign laws. Swiss Replica Watches

State Republican Party Chairman Mike Hubbard called for Renner’s resignation as the Marengo County party chairman after Renner formed True Republican PAC, a political action committee that reported spending more than $1.4 million in the primary campaign to criticize Byrne. The PAC’s ads emphasized that Byrne was once a Democrat who supported President Bill Clinton.

Campaign finance records show much of the money received by True Republican PAC came from the state teachers’ organization, the Alabama Education Association, through a series of PAC-to-PAC transfers. AEA is headed by two vice chairmen of the Alabama Democratic Party.

The Conservative Coalition for Alabama is running similar ads against Byrne in the runoff.

AEA Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert, who helped fund Renner’s ads before June 1, declined to say Wednesday whether his organization is involved with the Conservative Coalition.

“I know about it, but that’s all I’ll say about it,” he said in an interview.