Wilson sat on board of Crossroads GPS

Heather Wilson is getting some big support from American Crossroads — a group she has ties with. Wilson disclosed in her Financial Disclosure Report that she sat on the board of Crossroads GPS from August 2010 to February 2011.

Wilson lists the Washington D.C. political group as a “non-profit educational” group.

Crossroads GPS is the 501(c)3 committee that is aligned with American Crossroads and airs ads intended to help elect Republicans. The two groups are among the most prolific spenders in all of politics.

They are so closely intertwined that FactCheck.org even combines the two in their profiles of major outside groups.

Ed Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, and Karl Rove, who served as senior adviser to President George W. Bush, were instrumental in helping to launch American Crossroads in 2010. They “encouraged the formation” of American Crossroads and served as “informal advisers” and fundraisers, according to the group’s spokesman, Jonathan Collegio. The group then formed Crossroads Grassroots Political Strategies (Crossroads GPS) as a sister organization in June 2010.

The group has Missisippi governor Haley Barbour, a prominent Republican, as its chief fundraiser.

Crossroads GPS is controversial because it makes explicitly political ads and does not have to reveal its donors publicly. The donors do have to be revealed to the IRS.

Crossroads GPS is, as a “social welfare” not-for-profit, is supposed to spend half of its money on a social welfare. There are open questions if the non-profit does this.

The ad that American Crossroads, the Super PAC half of the tandem, is airing says Wilson “has an independent record of standing up to her own party.”

American Crossroads was the most prolific spender in the 2010 elections, and looks to blow that record out of hte water. In the first quarter of the year alone, the group raised $76 million.

The Democratic Party of New Mexico noted the connection in a press release blasting the former five-term congresswoman.

“Karl Rove’s shady Super PAC is attempting to make Heather Wilson out to be someone she’s not, but New Mexicans aren’t falling for it,” said Scott Forrester, Executive Director of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. “Congresswoman Wilson voted in lockstep with George W. Bush and the Republican Party for two unfunded wars, tax breaks for the richest Americans, and the Wall Street bank bailout—all at the expense of New Mexico’s middle class families.”

The release also noted that Karl Rove headlined a fundraiser for Wilson late last year. When the two appeared together at the El Paso County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner in Colorado, the Huffington Post noted the history the two had with the David Iglesias scandal.

During the 2007 investigation into whether the team at the Bush White House (including Rove) ordered the politically motivated firings of several U.S. attorneys, Rove alleged that then-Rep. Wilson asked him to boot New Mexico federal prosecutor David Iglesias because he moved too slowly in a case against a Democrat.

Wilson denied Rove’s claims, but Iglesias also said at the time that Wilson pressured him directly. Wilson only admitted to calling Iglesias for an update.

The firing of Iglesias, a Republican appointed by George W. Bush, will surely make appearances in the Senate race.

Update:

The PFD is embedded below.