Clinton supporters fund anti-Obama ad campaign in Indiana

Seizing on what they see as an opportunity, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s backers have poured nearly $1 million into an independent ad campaign committee critical of Sen. Barack Obama in Indiana.

The ad purchase, including another $220,000 today, means that the California-based American Leadership Project has spent more on ads in Indiana than in any other state, including the far more populous Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The effort is funded primarily by unions that are backing Clinton. Altogether, the group has spent $1.99 million on ads in the four primary states, and was considering airing ads in North Carolina, according to a participant.

The American Federation of Teachers donated $300,000 today. Other major donors to the latest effort include the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and unions representing painters and sheet metal workers.

Obama’s backers countered by increasing their spending to sway Indiana voters with an ad that is airing statewide.

Stephanie Mueller, spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union, which is funding the ad, said the purchase was “six-figure,” but would not be more specific.

The dueling ads are being aired as Obama tries to refocus his campaign amid the controversy over his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

The American Leadership Project ads stop short of expressly advocating Obama’s defeat or Clinton’s victory Tuesday. But they aim at Obama’s economic plan and urge that he be more specific.

Obama’s campaign attorney, Robert Bauer, at a news conference today called the ad illegal and announced that he had filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.

Sacramento consultant Jason Kinney, a Clinton backer who helped create the group along with Roger Salazar, also of Sacramento, called the Obama campaign’s complaint a “silly stunt.” He also said Bauer had “crossed the line from credible legal authority to being a political hatchet man.”

dan.morain@latimes.com