New report alleges illegal ad-buying coordination between NRA and Hawley senate campaign
An online journalism organization and Mother Jones magazine reported Friday that they had obtained documents showing proof of potentially illegal campaign coordination between Sen. Josh Hawley’s 2018 campaign and the National Rifle Association.
The Republican Hawley’s 2018 campaign manager said a “firewall” had been set up to make sure there was no coordination with the gun-rights group. The Federal Election Commission has received complaints about the alleged connection.
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Campaign Legal Center spokesman Brendan Fischer said the Mother Jones-The Trace report bolstered its complaint against Hawley and the NRA.
“Here you have the exact same person buying ads on behalf of both the NRA and the Hawley campaign, in some instances on the same day, so it is impossible to understand how that vendor could have established a firewall,” Fischer said.
“This piece shows that the NRA’s pro-Hawley’s ads and the Hawley campaign’s own ads were placed in a very complementary fashion, in some instances running shortly after one another,” he said. “Political advertisers would say that that is a useful strategy because (listeners) are bombarded with consistent messages within a short period of time.”