Floyd Brown - Political Activism

Political Activism

In 1988 Brown co-founded Citizens United. Several Brown-organized campaigns have been studied for their effectiveness; these include the effort to secure the confirmation of Judge Clarence Thomas, and the independent campaigns against Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton. The anti-Dukakis effort produced the famous “Willie Horton” commercial. Brown and Citizens United worked on behalf of the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. At the time, Brown articulated the bitterness of mainstream conservatives of Citizens United when told the New York Times, "What people don't understand is how bitter conservatives are about Bork," referring to Robert Bork, a previous conservative judge nominated by Reagan but unconfirmed to the court by Congress. In a 2007 CNN documentary, Broken Government: Campaign Killers, journalist Campbell Brown, who is not related to Floyd Brown, interviewed him briefly on the subject of the Willie Horton ad, but not about a racy ad with a toll-free number that listeners could call to hear a recording of Gennifer Flowers, a woman who had been the subject of inquiries into President Bill Clinton. Campbell Brown attributed the Flowers ad to David Bossie rather than Floyd Brown, prompting Citizens United to threaten a lawsuit, and to distinguish between its activities, and those of Floyd Brown, the "true" author of the Flowers ad.

Republican Party

He is active in the Republican Party and was a delegate to both the 2000 and 1996 National conventions. In 1996 he served on the Republican National Convention Platform Committee. He has been an advisor and consultant to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush, Bob Dole and Steve Forbes for President campaigns. He was Midwest Regional Director of the Dole for President campaign in 1988, managing campaigns in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska.

Federal Election Commission Complaint

In 1992, Brown headed up the Presidential Victory Committee, which backed the candidacy of George H.W. Bush. In March of that year the Bush campaign sought to halt the committee's efforts to raise money. Bobby Burchfield, acting as Bush campaign counsel, wrote to Brown, "Your group has neither asked for nor received permission to solicit funds using the name of George Bush. The president strongly disapporoves of this misleading use of his name and reputation."

CBS Evening News reported that Floyd Brown harassed the family of Susann Coleman, a former law student of Bush's opponent Bill Clinton. Coleman had committed suicide, and Brown was attempting to investigate a rumor that she had had an affair with Clinton. David Bossie reportedly stalked the Coleman family while working for Brown. In April, 1992, 30 news organizations received "an anonymous and untraceable letter" by fax "claiming Clinton had had an affair with a former law student who committed suicide 15 years ago." Floyd Brown attempted to investigate any connection between Clinton and the 1977 suicide of this, "emotionally distraught young woman, seven-months pregnant," Susann Coleman.

In an audiotaped phone conversation with Coleman's sister, the following exchange took place:

Brown: Was she depressed? See, you won't even answer if she was depressed.
Coleman's Sister: Because I—
Brown: Was she suicidal?
Coleman's Sister: Just leave my family alone.
Brown: You're making it so difficult for me to leave your family out of it.

Two days after the CBS charges aired, the Bush-Quayle campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Brown, seeking to distance itself from his tactics, and calling Brown and his associates "the lowest forms of life".

Whitewater Controversy and Clinton Impeachment

Brown figured prominently in two ways in the Whitewater controversy of the Clinton presidential administration. Brown was investigating Clinton. Brown was contacted by David Hale a municipal judge facing indictment for fraud, then functioning as a paid informant for the FBI. Under the auspices of Citizens United, Brown issued letters to 100,000 donors to Citizens United, asking for money and saying that he had proof that President Bill Clinton had engaged "in a massive cover-up and conspiracy to obstruct justice" in the investigations surrounding the Whitewater controversy. At the same time that Brown was investigating the Clintons, he was using the tax-exempt status of Citizens United to acquire funds, urging his donors to fill out an "emergency impeachment" survey, utilized a push-poll technique. Brown's fundraising literature said, "Our top investigator, David Bossie, is on the inside directing the probe as Special Assistant to U.S. Senator Lauch Faircloth on the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee."

Obama Attacks in 2008 Presidential Race

In the spring of 2008, working for The National Campaign Fund, Floyd Brown launched what he called "the most internet-intensive effort for an ad debut ever" to disseminate via what he claimed was three to five million emails to conservatives to imply that Barack Obama had been "soft" on crime as a state senator in Illinois before his presidential candidacy. The initiative was funded by a political action committee calling itself the "National Campaign Fund," which had $14,027 in the bank at the end of March, 2008. Other Brown-established groups to raise funds in this effort include a 527 group Citizens for a Safe and Prosperous America. Brown also uses a 501(c)4 non-profit to raise funds for the Policy Issues Institute. Brown made appearances to promote his ad and his company on a news network, Fox News, In response to the attack ad, Newsweek published a report on the ad, saying it was the attempt of "a conservative ad man striving to regain his Willie Horton notoriety" and directed readers to factcheck.org to get information on Obama's voting record. The report includes a swipe at MSNBC's Chris Matthews for airing the ad continuously, pointing to Brown's strategy of getting "free" air time for ads by making them controversial.

Brown's fundraising strength is diminished by the hesitance of large donors to leave themselves vulnerable to the legal difficulties encountered by donors to "swiftboat" ad efforts in the 2004 election cycle, and to new laws which curtail some of the more offensive content of political ads by 527 groups. As some of the contributors to the "swiftboat" ads in 2004 faced stiff fines from the FEC, Brown has refrained from operating out of 527 groups and opted for the PAC platform and budgeting from small donors. Brown's stated goal is to release one new attack ad every two weeks, and recently released an advertisement asserting that Obama was registered as a Muslim student in Indonesia, and that he attended an Indonesian school that taught Islam as a child. The claim has been refuted by the Obama campaign. As of March 2008, Brown had raised $50,000, and spent $5,000.00 on actual ad buys, also posting the ad on YouTube and other public platforms

In August 2008 Brown teamed up with writer and entrepreneur Jerome Corsi to promote Corsi's book Obama Nation via viral web campaigns and emailings.