(Source: The Decatur Daily)trackingBy M.J. Ellington, The Decatur Daily, Ala.

Oct. 26–MONTGOMERY — The company that created 2004’s Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth is working for Republican Wayne Parker’s U.S. House District 5 race.

A marketing company with ties to presidential races back to Jimmy Carter is working on Democrat Parker Griffith’s campaign for the same seat.

If voters in North Alabama’s 5th Congressional District thought the race was important only locally, they might want to think again.

During a two-week period in October, Democrats spent almost $325,000 on Griffith’s campaign, and there is more to come. Republicans spent over $168,000, most of which went to the Swift Boat campaign firm. More is coming from them as well.

U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville, will retire in January, and the race has no incumbent for the first time in more than 20 years. National congressional campaign committees and other groups that want to grab the power for their parties are players in Alabama.

They are spending to get voters to think about trust and integrity, two things that they say are keys to the race.

Kyra Jennings, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman, said Friday the group’s spending total for District 5 since the campaign began in late March is $556,000.

For the National Republican Congressional Committee, the total for the year is $259,000, press secretary Ken Spain said.

More negative to come

And if District 5 voters think they’ve had enough of negative campaigning, party leaders in Washington say: Just wait.

Among those organizations doing attack ads is the marketing and advertising firm that designed the Swift Boat campaign against Democrat John Kerry that sent Republican George W. Bush back to the White House in 2004.

The National Republican Congressional Committee is paying for the firm to work on Wayne Parker’s campaign.

Parker also has funding from two interest groups run by Republicans who were key players when the party held majority power in Congress. Recent financial records for those groups were not available.

The two organizations with similar names share a common purpose.

Freedom’s Watch, an independent group in Washington, runs television and radio commercials attacking opponents of Republican candidates. Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson founded the organization along with Anthony Gioia. Both men were involved in President Bush’s administration.

Family ties

FreedomWorks, also in the Washington area, is a Republican lobbying and campaign group founded by former Texas Rep. Dick Armey.

He was House majority leader while Parker’s father-in-law, former Rep.