Growth money, TV ad aid Smith

Itemized receipts for Committee: Robin Smith for Tennessee

Retired oil executive John F. Roorda, of Houston, and E. Davison Massey, a retiree from Winnetka, Ill., don't know Robin Smith, a Republican seeking Tennessee's open 3rd Congressional District seat.

But each contributed to her campaign at the urging of the conservative Club for Growth.

Responding to a solicitation letter from the Washington, D.C.-based group, they and dozens of others across the county have donated a combined $107,624 to Smith, a Hixson health care consultant and former Tennessee Republican Party chairwoman, records show.

Roorda, 87, contributed $500 to Smith's campaign and said he trusts the Club for Growth to find and vet candidates whose conservative ideals match his. The organization supports low taxes and limited government.

"I'm willing to take their word for it," he said in a telephone interview.

Massey gave Smith $3,000, reports show. In a telephone interview, he said he does not know her but wants to see a change in the country's direction.

The Club for Growth also is helping Smith by airing a television commercial in the 3rd District critical of her chief GOP rival, attorney Chuck Fleischmann, 47, of Chattanooga.

The 30-second spot began airing Tuesday and will run through Aug. 4 in Chattanooga and Knoxville, said Smith spokesman Mark Winslow.

The primary election is Aug. 5.

As an independent expenditure by the Club for Growth, the ad by law cannot be coordinated with the Smith campaign. Winslow said the campaign didn't know about the ad beforehand and that his information about it came from a paid service that tracks media buys.

In the ad, titled "Choice," a narrator calls Fleischmann a "trial lawyer" and Smith a "conservative" and says they don't see eye-to-eye on spending. The narrator says Smith opposes earmark spending and that Fleischmann wants to continue Washington's way of spending.

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On Tuesday, Fleischmann said it is a "joke" to assert that Smith is a fiscal conservative in light of reports in the Times Free Press that the state GOP had a deficit when she left as chairwoman in 2009.

He also said that, since the Federal Election Commission form that lists PAC contributions indicates bundled money is "earmarked" for a candidate, she has received "earmarks" herself.

Smith said Tuesday that to receive a Club for Growth endorsement "you have to have a pro-growth vision."

She is one of only eight U.S. House candidates endorsed this season by the organization.

"Before I got the endorsement I was against earmarks, and after I got the endorsement, I am against earmarks," she said.

Club for Growth spokesman Michael Connolly said the PAC is "going to do everything we can" to help Smith win and called her a "proven fiscal conservative."

The more than 70 Club for Growth donors who contributed to Smith's campaign include a Florida commodities operator and a Wisconsin paper company executive.

The bundled PAC money represents 17 percent of the $633,174 she had raised by the end of the June 30 reporting period, according to the FEC website.

Smith is among 11 Republicans, four Democrats and six independents vying for the seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., who is running for governor.

The 11-county 3rd district, representing about 650,000 East Tennesseans, stretches from the Georgia to Kentucky and includes Chattanooga, Cleveland and Oak Ridge.


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3rd District Candidates


Republicans

Tommy Crangle

Chuck Fleischmann

Tim Gobble

Jean "Lady J" Howard-Hill

Harvey Howard

Van Irion

Rick Kernea

Art Rhodes

Robin Smith

Grover Travillian

Basil Marceaux, Sr.


Democrats

Alicia Mitchell

Brenda Freeman Short

Brent Davis Staton

John Wolfe


Independents

Don Barkman

Mark DeVol

Gregory C. Goodwin

Robert Humphries

Mo Kiah

Savas T. Kyriakidis

Source: Tennessee Department of State


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