A new series of attack ads against Sen. Barack Obama will attempt to tie him to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
Freedom's Defense Fund, a Washington-based group that funds Republican candidates' campaigns, paid $25,000 to air the ads over the next 10 days. The ads show Obama lauding Kilpatrick at the Detroit Economic Club in May 2007, the Associated Pressreported.
"We know that he is going to be doing astounding things for many years to come," Obama says in the ad as mugshots of Kilpatrick and the list of charges against float across the screen. "I'm grateful to call him a friend."
After an seven-month sex scandal that rocked the Democratic Party and an already struggling city, Kilpatrick pled guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Obama's Michigan campaign spokesman, Brent Colburn, said Obama made the comments long before the mayor's troubles began.
"The ad ... fails to mention that Senator Obama called on Mayor Kilpatrick to resign," Colburn said. On Thursday, Colburn said the campaign welcomed Kilpatrick's resignation because it "is the only way for the city to move forward and get back to business."
But this isn't the first ad campaign launched against Sen. Obama that attempts to connect him with disreputable people.
A group linked to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign is spending $2.8 million on ads which suggest Obama has a connection to William Ayers of the 1960s radical group Weather Underground, the Associated Pressreported.
Organizers tried to air the ad on the Fox News Channel, but it was declined for reasons a Fox spokesman would not explain.
The ad was later aired accidentally during a Fox News report on Obama's supposed ties with Tony Rezko, yet another man facing criminal charges.
Wire services contributed to this report.
The following is the attack ad against Sen. Barack Obama:
A new series of attack ads against Sen. Barack Obama will attempt to tie him to 