CLF, AAN Expand Ad Push to $3 Million Across Six Districts

By Scott Bland  //  September 17, 2012 | 6:00 a.m.

After unveiling its first general election TV ad of the cycle last Friday, the Congressional Leadership Fund and the American Action Network, a Republican super PAC and its affiliated non-profit, will expand their advertising push to $3 million across six House districts this week. The spots provide another clear signal that Republicans believe the strength of their winning 2010 messages persists this year, too.

CLF released its first TV ad -- a 30-second spot linking Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Ohio to cap and trade, Obamacare, the stimulus, and Nancy Pelosi -- at the end of last week, along with $1 million of broadcast advertising time in the Cleveland market for her member-versus-member race against freshman GOP Rep. Jim Renacci in Ohio's 16th District. Ads from CLF and AAN in five more districts and worth another $1.75 million of TV time will roll out over the course of this week. The groups are also running online ads worth about a quarter-million dollars across the six districts.

Four of the targeted districts are home to endangered GOP freshmen: Reps. Quico Canseco (Texas's 23rd District), Larry Bucshon (Indiana's 8th District), Chip Cravaack (Minnesota's 8th District), and Jeff Denham (California's 10th District). The fifth targeted race is Illinois's 13th District, where GOP Rep. Tim Johnson's retirement left an open seat.

CLF will release an ad in Canseco's district, backed by a $300,000 buy, later this week, and AAN is also releasing an ad for Bucshon's race, backed by $80,000 in Terre Haute, in a few days. We'll have to wait to examine the message in those districts, but if the new ads for the other three are any indication, they will concentrate on tying Democratic challengers to the policies passed by Democrats in Washington two years ago.

AAN cut two TV ads hitting Cravaack's challenger Rick Nolan, one for the Minneapolis media market and one for Duluth. The Minneapolis ad links Nolan with Obamacare and a bill to restructure Medicare from the 1970s, when Nolan served in Congress. The ad for Duluth links Nolan to the Environmental Protection Agency and says that he wouldn't take the steps necessary to bring jobs back to Northern Minnesota. AAN bought $510,000 of broadcast TV time for the two ads. The group also released ads against Democrats David Gill in Illinois and Jose Hernandez in California. The anti-Gill spot, running in St. Louis, Mo. for $320,000, accuses Gill of supporting the stimulus and "a single-payer health plan more radical than Obamacare." The anti-Hernandez ad, backed by $540,000 in Sacramento, dips into some content unique to the Democratic candidate, including the accusation that he moved to the district to run for Congress. But the bulk of the ad links Hernandez to the stimulus and Obamacare, with the usual highlight on the $716 billion in Medicare reimbursement reductions included in the law.

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