With Sen. Barack Obama's campaign stumbling in recent days, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's backers have poured $1 million into an independent ad campaign in Indiana critical of Obama's economic recovery program.
With $220,000 in ad buys Wednesday alone, the California-based American Leadership Project has spent more on advertisements in Indiana than in the other, more populous states where it has been active: Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The group has spent $1.99 million overall on ads in the four states and was considering spots in North Carolina, according to a participant.
The effort is funded mainly by unions backing Clinton. The American Federation of Teachers donated $300,000 on Wednesday. In recent days, the effort has received a combined $600,000 from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and unions representing painters and sheet metal workers.
Obama's backers countered by increasing spending on a separate independent campaign to sway Indiana voters. Their ad emphasizes Obama's opposition to the Iraq war.
The dueling spots come as the Illinois senator seeks to refocus his campaign amid the controversy over his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.
Stephanie Mueller, spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union, which is funding the pro-Obama ad, said the purchase was "six-figure" but would not be more specific.
The ad, which makes no mention of Clinton, opens by detailing the construction of schools, roads and health clinics. "We're building for the future -- Iraq's future," it says, then notes that "only one candidate" -- Obama -- opposed the war from the start. It ends by saying he would bring troops home and "put America first."
The SEIU has spent the most on independent campaigns during the primaries -- at least $8.7 million boosting Obama's candidacy, according to Federal Election Commission records. The AFSCME has spent $4.1 million to help Clinton.
The American Leadership Project spot stops short of expressly advocating Obama's defeat or Clinton's victory in Indiana's primary Tuesday, when North Carolina will also hold its balloting. But the ad cites economic woes, including foreclosures, unemployment and rising prices.
Playing off one of the New York senator's campaign themes that Obama has failed to offer specifics, the ad ends with a narrator urging people to call Obama's Senate office and "tell him to give Hoosiers a real plan to fix our economy."
