Fredreka Schouten

USA TODAY

A Republican non-profit group that pummeled Democrat Hillary Clinton with negative advertising last year is back on the air with a new commercial, this time urging the U.S. Senate to confirm Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general.

The 30-second ad from the 45Committee calls Sessions a “civil rights champion” who will “put public safety first.”

The 45Committee is part of the political network aligned with TD Ameritrade founder J. Joe Ricketts and cadre of other Republican donors and operatives. The Ricketts clan, which owns the Chicago Cubs, initially funded efforts to defeat Donald Trump during the Republican primaries before swinging to his side last fall.

The 45Committee, which started in April 2015, is spending $750,000 on the pro-Sessions television and digital advertising campaign, officials said. The commercial is airing on national cable television. Later this week, the group will launch TV and digital ads to back Georgia Rep. Tom Price, Trump's pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services and is likely to spend as much on those ads.

The 45Committee can raise and spend unlimited sums but doesn’t have to disclose its donors’ identities,

Another Ricketts-aligned organization active in 2016, a super PAC called Future45, received the lion’s share of its money from casino magnate and Trump supporter Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam Adelson, who donated a combined $20 million. Ricketts gave $1 million to Future45, and Linda McMahon, the WWE co-founder whom Trump has tapped to run the Small Business administration, contributed $1.2 million.

The 45Committee is positioning itself as an outside advocacy group that is equipped to help Trump's administration wage policy battles with Democrats in the years ahead.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on Sessions’ confirmation. Another conservative group, the Judicial Crisis Network, funded a digital advertising campaign to support Sessions ahead of his confirmation hearings in the Senate earlier this month.

The Judicial Crisis Network and other conservative groups are expected to spend big sums on another confirmation fight looming in Washington: Trump’s still-to-be-named pick for the Supreme Court.

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