Independent Advocacy Group Launches Advertisements Against President Bush Over Position on Reimportation

The Media Fund, an independent advocacy group, is launching a "multimillion-dollar airwave assault" on President Bush over his stance against the reimportation of prescription drugs from other nations, the Boston Globe reports. The group, "funded by prominent liberals," has identified drug reimportation as a "key issu[e]" in presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry's (Mass.) campaign, the Globe reports. The advertisements, which are running in 17 presidential election swing states, feature an elderly couple sitting at a kitchen table while a narrator says that Bush "sided with drug companies, blocking Medicare from negotiating lower prices and banning Americans from importing low-cost drugs from Canada." The ad continues, "For President Bush drug company profits come first." The Media Fund spent $18.5 million on advertisements in the first quarter of 2004, according to the Globe. Officials for the Bush re-election campaign said that they will not respond to the Media Fund advertisements on reimportation, contending that the spots are an "illegal use of soft money." Bush re-election campaign officials have asked the Federal Election Commission to examine if the Media Fund's activities are a violation of campaign finance laws, the Globe reports (Rowland, Boston Globe, 5/12).