Senate Ads: The Last Roundup

Remember the United States Senate? Thirty-five seats up for election? Republicans in danger of losing a half-dozen or more?

While most everyone was talking about the presidential contest, what the next president actually does will be significantly determined by the composition of the Senate. So here's our roundup of the latest, and last, Senate ads.

Republicans Who Care is a 527 formed to support moderate Republicans and counterbalance the Club for Growth, which works to supplant moderates with conservatives. This year it wanted to prop up Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), in danger of being picked off by Democrat Jeff Merkley.

The group received $50,000 this year from hedge fund billionaire Robert Ziff and another $50,000 from Amory Houghton Jr., a former Republican congressman who used to run Corning Inc. James R. Houghton, retired chair of Corning, also gave $20,000.

Amo Houghton also founded the Republican Main Street Partnership, which spawned Republicans Who Care. Sarah Chamberlain Resnick handles finances for both groups.

The Republicans Who Care ad in Oregon accuses Merkley of supporting higher taxes...and taxes and taxes and taxes.

The housing and construction industries didn't want to lose Sen. Smith either. Both the National Association of Home Builders and the Associated Builders and Contractors trade association took to the radio airwaves with ads cheerleading for Smith.

We couldn't get ABC to share its ad with us, but the Home Builders ad says Smith "keeps watch to ensure equality and fiscal responsibilty" from his perch on the Senate Finance Committee. The Home Builders association has given Smith $41,000 over his career, making it Smith's 11th largets contributor, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Some of the lines in the ad are made for kindergarten (no offense to kindergarteners), but they get the message across: "Few committees are more important. Sounds like a tremendous amount of work. It is. And Gordon Smith is ready for more of it. That is a good thing."

And now for Republicans Who Don't Care....No. Just kidding.

The Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, which popped up to support McCain in the Republican primaries, targeted the not-exactly-endangered Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD). The group was formed by former McCain advisor Rick Reed, who co-produced the TV ads for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004. (McCain denounced the group's efforts during the primaries.)

Concentrating now on Senate races, the 501(c)(4) reportedly ran a radio ad against Democratic candidate Bruce Lunsford in Kentucky. The South Dakota ad blames Democrats for the economic crisis and knocks Johnson for taking money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Check out Citizens for Strength and Security and Americans for Job Security after the jump...

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9:02 PM ET | 11- 4-2008 | permalink

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Electioneering By Hypnosis In Oregon

The Democrats have figured it out. The key to defeating Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) is hynosis. How else to explain these similarly transfixing anti-Smith ads from two liberal groups?

The Service Employees International Union offers a spinning kaleidoscope of money, symbolizing the "deep dark hole" of the economy. Add ominous music, show Smith's face; then bring back the kaleidoscope, cue the feel-good chords and show Smith's competition, Democrat Jeff Merkley. In Youtube format, you can watch again and again!

If that didn't work, try this: 30 seconds of water spiraling down the drain, countesy of Patriot Majority, a union-funded 527 trying to defeat Smith because he's "draining the middle class." Then the words on the screen dissolve into water and spiral down too....woah. For the full effect, we suggest playing both ads at the same time.

Did it work on you? If not, more ads (of the non-whirling variety) after the jump:

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6:01 PM ET | 10-23-2008 | permalink

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A Tour Of Senate Ads

Our business here is to monitor indie political groups and their ads, and business has been good. Advocacy groups haven't run out of money. The bad news? They've run out of ideas.

Two new North Carolina ads follow story lines we've heard over and over before (not that that's a bad way to influence voters -- it just makes the blog more boring). Here's one from Freedom's Watch, blaming Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan for jacking up taxes. Our takeaway: She wants to tax candy?!

Next, Americans for Job Security denounces unions that want to take away secret ballots in union elections. "Hagan's on their side, not ours," the ad says, as an armored truck speeds out of Washington, presumably delivering union cash to Hagan. Watch the ad here. There's a virtually identical ad targeting the Democrat Ronnie Musgrove in a Mississippi Senate race.

Moving along to New Hampshire... Labor unions (those bad guys from the last ad) are piling on to Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) by, predictably, tying him to President Bush. The distinguishing factor? The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees uses a rope metaphor (we're at the "end of our rope") and the Service Employees International Union uses a country-store cash register gimmick. We don't have the AFSCME ad in blogable format, so you'll have to trust us. Here's the SEIU ad:

Now follow us to Minnesota for a breath of fresh ideas...

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12:55 PM ET | 10-23-2008 | permalink

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October Bombardment, Part II: Senate Edition

Just as the presidential race is awash with new attack ads, Senate candidates face a crushing wave of messages from outside groups as well. Here, we feature the American Energy Alliance, Americans for Job Security, Freedom's Watch, Health Care for America Now and VoteVets. And they just keep coming. Let's start in Oregon:

Freedom's Watch
The conservative casino magnate-funded group blasts Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Merkley of Oregon on taxes. In the ad, a driver listens to the car radio, which broadcasts a caller on talk radio saying he's upset that Merkley wants to raise taxes. The radio host confirms, "You're right, I saw that on TV." The fictional host may have seen it on TV because Freedom's Watch recently broadcast an another ad about it. So, try to follow this: the TV ad cites a radio caller who is backed up by a radio host who cites a TV ad.

American Energy Alliance
We travel east to Kentucky, where this conservative group with ties to the oil industry is spending $108,000 on a radio ad against Bruce Lunsford, the Democratic challenger to the newly vulnerable Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The ad blames Lunsford for the Kentucky system of taxing gas, calling it the "Lunsford gas tax." It says, "Nobody likes paying more at the pump -- unless you're Bruce Lunsford." The ad echoes an earlier TV ad by McConnell, which was analyzed by Factcheck.org.

Travel on to New Hampshire and North Carolina...

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4:18 PM ET | 10- 9-2008 | permalink

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Controversial Pro-Business Group Targets Dems

Americans for Job Security -- a pro-business advocacy organization with a long record of running election-season ads without disclosing donors -- is targeting Democratic Senate candidates in three key races with negative radio messages.

One ad blames Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) for rampant "pork-barrel spending," and accuses her of trading an earmark for campaign contributions. Another says that Minnesota Senate candidate Al Franken's economic plan "reads like a bad joke." Yet another warns that New Hampshire Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen is all about taxes, taxes, taxes.

The ads cost nearly $300,000 in all, according to recent filings. Listen to them here.

The organization's president, Stephen DeMaura, is no stranger to New Hampshire politics. Until recently, he was executive director of the NH Republican Party.

And the group itself is no stranger to complaints. Last year, the liberal group Public Citizen called on the Internal Revenue Service to revoke AJS's tax status. And a previous anti-Shaheen ad drew a formal complaint by the NH Democratic Party to the Federal Election Commission.

AJS started in the 1990s with funding from the American Insurance Association and the American Forest and Paper Association, but neither we nor anyone else (besides the group) know where it's gotten money recently.

-- Will Evans

10:23 AM ET | 09-15-2008 | permalink

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