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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
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E-mailed to Dean list this a.m. from Trippi: “A faceless group that the Washington Post calls ‘despicable’ is using hundreds of thousands of dollars to air vicious television ads that use pictures of Osama bin Laden to attack Howard Dean. Don’t wait. We’re under attack, and we need your help now.

http://www.deanforamerica.com/attackad

The secretive group that is running the ads call themselves “Americans for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values.” The Washington Post condemned the group in an editorial on Saturday:

“[‘Progressive values’ apparently] don’t include letting voters know who’s footing the bill. Under the out-of-sync reporting schedule that governs such groups, donors’ names don’t have to be revealed until early February. So is the money from unions that back Mr. Gephardt but don’t want to be publicly connected to this anti-Dean campaign? Or is it from a few wealthy donors who don’t like Mr. Dean — and perhaps are backing another one of the trailing Democratic candidates? From Republicans who want to take Mr. Dean down a few notches? There’s no way for a voter to know, not in time for that information to make a difference.”

“This outside-group dodge, from those who pose as champions of ‘progressive values,’ [is] despicable. ‘I believe strongly in the view of Thomas Jefferson that an informed electorate helps insure the strength of democracy,’ [the group’s president] said on the group’s Web site. Informed, that is, of what he chooses to tell them. What hypocrisy.”

Trippi: Ads like this are the reason half of Americans don’t vote. All Democrats should be working to bring people back into the political process — not turning them off. Please act now by contributing whatever amount you can afford, and send a statement that these type of attacks have no place in Democratic politics:

http://www.deanforamerica.com/contribute

Thank you for everything you do for our campaign.

Joe Trippi
Campaign Manager
Dean for America

PS To read the entire Washington Post editorial, click here:
http://www.deanforamerica.com/wpdec12

To read more about the attack, please read our blog:
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/002665.html

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Contributions to Dean For America are not tax-deductible for federal income tax purposes

Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.