Allen campaign coffers benefit from MoveOn.org

Rep. Tom Allen, who is seeking to unseat incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in the 2008 election, has received nearly $250,000 in campaign funds generated by the liberal Web site MoveOn.Org.

MoveOn, a political action group, was lambasted last week by senators of both parties for paying for a newspaper advertisement deriding the credibility of Army Gen. David Petraeus.

MoveOn, created as a Web-based call to Congress to “move on” to other business during the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton, has since evolved into a powerful political action group for liberal positions.

MoveOn paid for a full-page advertisement criticizing Petraeus in the Sept. 10 edition of The New York Times that was denounced by Collins and other senators, including some Democrats. Petraeus testified last week before Congress on the status of U.S. efforts to limit sectarian violence in Iraq.

The ad, under the headline “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?,” accused Petraeus of “cooking the books for the White House” on the war and referred to the general as “a military man constantly at war with the facts.”

Allen, who voted against giving President Bush authority to invade Iraq in 2003, did not issue a public statement about the MoveOn ad.

On Tuesday, Allen’s campaign manager Valerie Martin confirmed that MoveOn helped “bundle” about $250,000 in campaign donations for Allen.

In June, MoveOn sent e-mails to subscribers asking them to donate to Allen’s campaign, Martin said, “largely because of his position on the war.” MoveOn gathered 6,500 individual donations, she said.

Allen “has said he has great respect for General Petraeus,” Martin said, and met with him during Allen’s visit to Iraq last month. But Allen is dismissive of Petraeus’ view that the surge of troops is turning the tide in Iraq, she said.

“He’s a general who takes orders from President Bush, [and] who’s been instructed to keep fighting this war, and Tom wants to end it,” Martin said.

Pressed for Allen’s position on the ad, Martin said candidates getting support from nonpartisan, Web-based groups like MoveOn have a complex relationship with them.

Martin said that even though a lot of Internet-based groups like MoveOn may support Allen, he doesn’t necessarily agree with all their positions.

But Allen would continue to use MoveOn, Martin said, because the network provides “a way for a lot of people who agree with Tom on the war to connect with him.”