Ad Roundup:
• CA-24: The NRCC argues that Democrat Salud Carbajal voted to raise other people’s taxes while failing to property pay his own.
• CA-26: In her first ad, Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley talks about her work helping military families.
• CA-52: In her first general election ad, Republican Denise Gitsham delivers some very vague statements about how career politics suck and she’s different. Gitsham used to work for Karl Rove, which of course she doesn’t mention in this spot, though she does declare that “San Diego needs a representative from the American side of the beltway.”
• CO-03: In her first ad, Democrat Gail Shwartz tells the audience how she lost her young daughter in a car accident, but she fought to be able to stand up again when she was told her she’d never walk. Schwartz goes on to say that she stood up for schools, and she will stand up to Republican Rep. Scott Tipton to “stop him from selling off our public lands.”
• CO-06: Democrat Morgan Carroll highlights her work helping an ill single mother when she was at risk of losing everything.
• FL-13: In their first ad of the contest, House Majority PAC ties Republican Rep. David Jolly to Donald Trump, arguing they are both a threat to women’s health.
• FL-18: The NRCC contrasts Republican Brian Mast with Democrat Randy Perkins. The narrator argues that, while Mast put “service before self,” Perkins got rich after hurricanes and “had subcontractors do the work. Pays them a fraction, keeps millions for himself.” Perkins runs a disaster relief company, and this spot doesn’t actually charge him with doing anything illegal. However, as this ad demonstrates, the NRCC doesn’t really need to do much work to make Perkins’ whole line of work sound icky.
• IA-01: The NRCC argues that Democrat Monica Vernon took taxpayer-funded salary increases and helped developers who donated to her campaign.
• ME-02: Democrat Emily Cain has two new ads (here and here). The first features a group of loggers criticizing Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin for making millions on Wall Street, then “abusing the Tree Growth Program to pay just $21 in taxes on his oceanfront estate.” They also argue that the Tree Growth Program “should be helping loggers, not Wall Street millionaires,” and suggest that “the Paul Bunyan Statue has cut down more trees than Poliquin,” and “probably pays more taxes, too.”
We had some issues with a recent Cain ad that also tried to portray Poliquin as hostile to rural Maine, which we didn’t feel did a good job making a clear argument against Poliquin. However, this is a much stronger commercial that does a good job making the case that Poliquin has abused the system to make himself rich at the expense of regular people. (And the bit at the end with the Paul Bunyan Statue is funny.) Cain’s other new spot is positive, and pledges that she will fight unfair trade deals that would cost Maine jobs.
• MN-02: Last week, the DCCC went up with a spot against Republican Jason Lewis. The commercial is not online, but CBS Minnesota has a copy of the script. The DCCC does not fuck around, and they waste no time not only tying Lewis to Donald Trump, they use some of the former conservative radio host’s worst quotes against him, including, “Of course I have the right to shoot an unarmed man,” and “The vast majority of young, single women — they are non-thinking.” This is a well-educated and affluent seat where Trump is unlikely to be anything but a liability, and connecting Lewis and Trump should be an effective tactic.
• MN-03: The DCCC also began running a commercial against Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen last week that is not currently online. The ad argues that both Donald Trump and the congressman are against equal pay, want to defund Planned Parenthood, and want to punish women who get abortions. This is another suburban seat where Trump is likely to cause the GOP problems downballot though unlike Jason Lewis in MN-02, Paulsen is an incumbent who has easily won re-election here over the years.
• NE-02: The NRCC continues to argue that Democratic Rep. Brad Ashford is weak on national security, this time blaming him for allowing Guantanamo Bay detainees to be released.
• NV-03: Republican Danny Tarkanian features a woman praising him for raising awareness about pediatric strokes, noting that both their children have suffered from strokes. In her first ad, Democrat Jacky Rosen highlights her work as a programmer and synagogue president in finding smart solutions.
• NY-19: End Citizens United is up with a $230,000 buy in the Albany and Utica markets, bypassing the ultra-expensive New York City market where half the district lives. Their spot argues that Democrat Zephyr Teachout has stood up for the middle class and against powerful special interests.
• PA-08: Republican Brian Fitzpatrick talks about his law enforcement background, and calls for “tougher sentences for heroin dealers” as well as more funding for both drug education and treatment for addicts. The NRCC attacks Democrat Steve Santarsiero on taxes.
• PA-16: In her first ad, Democrat Christina Hartman talks about her work “negotiating for human rights, building strong democracies, and giving a voice to the most vulnerable.” She then argues that Republican Lloyd Smucker used his power ”to oppose a woman’s right to choose, and to stand in the way of good jobs here at home, all the while standing up for Donald Trump.”
Romney carried this Lancaster County seat 52-46 and it has a lower proportion of residents with a college degree (though the median income is close to the national average), so it’s not clear that this will be an area that will vote against Trump. However, Hartman probably isn’t winning this ancestrally red seat unless Trump craters here, so it makes sense that she’s tying Smucker to the Donald.
• WA-07: Pramila Jayapal, who is running in the all-Democratic general election for this Seattle seat, is out with her first ad since the early August top two primary. Jayapal highlights her focus on fighting climate change, complete with a dramatic shot of a collapsing iceberg at the beginning.