03-30-2005
HOUSE LEADERSHIP - Anti-DeLay Ads To Run In Four GOP-Held Districts
And D.C.Susan Davis
© National Journal Group, Inc.
Two liberal advocacy groups will launch television ads Thursday in the districts of House Majority Leader DeLay, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Thomas Reynolds of New York, Ethics Chairman Hastings and Rep. Rob Simmons, R-Conn., targeting DeLay and calling for his resignation. Campaign for America's Future, a liberal advocacy group, will air an ad in DeLay's Houston-area district on four cable syndicates, as well as on outlets in Washington, D.C. The $75,000 ad buy will run for one week, according to CAF deputy director Ellen Miller. The 30-second ad depicts a man washing his hands with a voice-over that states, "He'd like you to forget he's been accused of accepting a gift worth thousands from a foreign agent. He'd like you to forget that two of his close associates have been indicted for money laundering." The ad also alludes to DeLay's involvement in the Terri Schiavo case, stating "Tom DeLay can't wash his hands of corruption by involving Congress in one family's personal tragedy." Miller said CAF believes DeLay used the Schiavo situation "in part to distract the public from his ethical lapses."
The Public Campaign Action Fund is paying for a $25,000 ad buy in the districts of Reynolds, Hastings, and Simmons that will run Thursday through Sunday, according to PCAF political director David Donnelly, who said these are the "first wave" of ads the group will use to target House Republicans on DeLay. The three ads have the same scripts listing the ethical charges against DeLay but separately call on lawmakers to ask for DeLay's resignation. The ad airing in Hastings' Washington district states, "Congressman Hastings, you're the chairman of the Ethics Committee, do your job and clean up Congress." The Simmons ad calls on him to return campaign funds he received at a recent fundraiser that DeLay attended. While CAF said Wednesday it is calling for DeLay to resign as majority leader, PCAF is calling on DeLay to resign from Congress altogether.
Both groups said they paid for the ads through small member donations and did not coordinate their effort with House Democrats. A DeLay spokesman countered that CAF has a longstanding relationship with Democrats. "Campaign for American's Future is just another in a long line of front groups working in tandem with [Minority Leader Pelosi] and her House Democrats and is being fronted by their liberal heavy hitters like George Soros," he said. "House Democrats have all but admitted that they have no agenda, no ideas and no solutions. These ads are a carefully orchestrated attack on House Republicans' efforts to move America forward," he said.
A spokesman for the NRCC said that outside of a "media splash" inside the Beltway, the low-funded ads targeting Reynolds, Simmons and Hastings will have little impact in their districts. "Nobody knows who Tom DeLay is," he said. "And most of those people like their congressmen, and they are not going to implicate them by association when there is no guilt there."
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