A rich Texas businessman who is one of George W. Bush’s biggest campaign contributors admitted on Friday that he had paid $2.5 million to run TV ads that accuse John McCain of voting against renewable energy while praising Bush for his environmental record. Sam Wyly said he wanted to draw attention to environmental issues in the presidential campaign. Observers speculate that Wyly also wanted to raise the profile of clean energy to give a boost to a company he has invested in and chairs, GreenMountain.com, which bills itself a seller of ecofriendly electric power — a claim disputed by some enviros. McCain blasted the ad, saying campaign finance reform is needed to prohibit these types of “issue ads,” which attempt to influence elections but don’t explicitly recommend that people vote for a particular candidate. Enviros say the ad is misleading and accuse Bush of having an abysmal environmental record.
