UPDATED 5:24 P.M. 10/13/2008 

A new television ad from the 501(c)4 group Campaign Money Watch blasts Republican U.S. Senate nominee Bob Schaffer as "a war profiteer" and draws ties between Schaffer and big oil companies.

The new ad is part of an television ad buy of about $900,000 made by the independent group last week on all Denver broadcast stations.

The new ad, entitled "Deal," is the second ad aired as part of the buy. It likely will be the last ad released as part of the current media buy, said Campaign Money Watch Chairman David Donnelly - though he didn't rule out making future ad buys against Schaffer in the final weeks of the campaign.

The ad brings up Schaffer's role in negotiating an oil contract between the government of Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, and his former employer, Aspect Energy.

Schaffer drew criticism for helping to negotiate the deal because the U.S. State Department had warned American energy companies not to deal with the Kurdish government as it would undermine the authority of the fledgling Iraqi government in Baghdad.

The ad quotes a Rocky Mountain News article in which VoteVets.org chairman Jon Soltz says Schaffer "is a war profiteer - 100 percent." VoteVets.org, another 501(c)4 group, aired their own TV ad last August blasting Schaffer for the deal.

The ad goes on to state that "Schaffer voted to give big oil companies nearly $13 billion in tax breaks" while "big oil gave $224,000 to Schaffer's political campaigns."

Asked about the ad, Schaffer manager Dick Wadhams sarcastically replied, "A left-wing group funded by a convicted insider trader George Soros would attack Bob Schaffer -- what a shocking revelation."

Soros was convicted of insider trading by a French court in 2006; the same year, he contributed $100,000 to Campaign Money Watch.

Looking ahead, Donnelly said Campaign Money Watch will be watching a scheduled endorsement of Schaffer on Wednesday by the Move America Forward Freedom PAC.

In a conference call with reporters, Donnelly said the "controversial"  PAC "sent a delegation of leaders to tour Kurdistan in November 2006 - the very same month Schaffer was there." He also said the lobbying firm of the PAC's political strategist, Sal Russo, was hired by the Kurdistan Development Corporation to promote business investment in Kurdistan.

"We urge Bob Schaffer to explain what relationship he has with this controversial group, or the lobbying firm, and if the lobbying firm helped Aspect Energy secure the contract in Kurdistan," Donnelly said.

Wadhams said Move America Forward is "made up of women who have lost sons in Iraq," and said to criticize such a group "is just about as despicable as you can go."

Udall "ought to be ashamed of his friends doing this," Wadhams said, "and it's time for Boulder Liberal Mark Udall to apologize for these kinds of attacks on mothers who have lost sons in Iraq."

Udall spokeswoman Tara Trujillo responded that "If anybody should apologize, it should be Bob Schaffer" for having "ignored State Department warnings that cutting an oil deal with the Kurds would put our troops in harm's way." 

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article attributed, in error, the following quote to Schaffer manager Dick Wadhams: "We urge Bob Schaffer to explain what relationship he has with this controversial group, or the lobbying firm, and if the lobbying firm helped Aspect Energy secure the contract in Kurdistan."

That statement was said by Campaign Money Watch Chairman David Donnelly.