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Democrats Launch First '08 Congressional Attack Ad

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July 14, 2008 6:46 PM

ABC News’ Karen Travers Reports: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has purchased ad time in Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District targeting Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, the Republican challenger who is looking to unseat Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski.

This is the first ad of the general election cycle from the DCCC, which has already reserved advertising time in 31 congressional districts at the cost of about $35-million. Those ad buys are scheduled to begin airing on television between early September and early October and run through Election Day.

The DCCC ad in Pennsylvania ties Barletta to President George W. Bush, stating that Bush has a friend in Pennsylvania in the Republican challenger. It begins running on Scranton-area television stations on Tuesday and is scheduled to stay up for several weeks.

A DCCC official confirms the ad was shipped to stations in Pennsylvania today and will begin airing tomorrow.

Kanjorski could be in for a tough battle against the Hazleton mayor The 12-term congressman is the second-longest serving Member from Pennsylvania (after Rep. John Murtha) and has never won a race by fewer than 13 percentage points. The two are familiar opponents – Kanjorski beat Barletta in the 2002 election.

Kanjorski was the first House Democrat to go on the air with ads, purchasing time on local affiliates in the Scranton PA area last month. 

“I think we’re not taking anything for granted and I presume neither is the DCCC and we’re going to fight a hard campaign here,” Kanjorski spokesman Mitchell told ABC News. “The Democrats have a tremendous financial advantage, so why do you want to get to October and say, ‘Holy mackerel, we’ve got a race!?’ You want to put it to bed as soon as you can and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Democrats expect this race will be competitive but note that Kanjorski is well known, having served 12 terms in Congress, and has a significant financial advantage over Barletta (more than 5-1).

“We have been aggressive all cycle, acting early and often. This is no different,” DCCC spokesman Doug Thornell said. “Lou Barletta is trying to mislead voters and we will not allow him to undergo an extreme makeover about his strong support of President Bush’s failed economic policies, tax cuts for the rich, and privatizing Social Security.”

Republicans see in this race a real (and rare) opportunity to pick up a Democratic seat. The race could boil down to a referendum on Kanjorski’s 24 years in Washington, which Republicans feel will only help their candidate.

“Democrats in Washington are clearly worried about having to defend Paul Kanjorski’s multitude of gaffes and unethical transgressions,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ken Spain said. “After all, this is the same Congressman who admitted to using the war in Iraq for political gain, has opposed securing our borders, and whose seemingly corrupt behavior has come under heavy public scrutiny. Representing everything that is wrong with Washington tends to make a politician vulnerable.”

The $35 million the DCCC has reserved for advertising in the fall is divided evenly among Democratic incumbent seats, Republican incumbent seats and open seats, according to figures obtained by ABC News. The DCCC will buy ad time in 11 districts with Democratic incumbents (totaling $10.8 million), nine districts with Republican incumbents (totaling $9 million ) and 11 districts where there are open seats (totaling $13.5 million). On the high end, House Democrats have set aside $1.7 million in two districts in Arizona – Republican Rick Renzi’s open seat (AZ-01) and incumbent Democrat Harry Mitchell’s seat.

July 14, 2008 in Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (4)

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Watch: McLaughlin's comments cause uproar
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What is not true about it? Maybe a low-roar by a phony.

Posted by: true fool | Jul 14, 2008 7:11:00 PM

is this barletta guy the one who was arresting landloards for renting to mexicans????????????????

Posted by: rodney | Jul 14, 2008 9:46:30 PM

the only reason anyone is hurting because of the drilling issue is because Americans are too dumb to do their research and understand that the places they want to drill isn't enough oil to serve much of any purpose except making Bush and his cronies big profits. Wake up America, take away the handouts to bitg oil and put that money into research of viable alternatives. Then we as a country might be able to remove ourselves from the middle east!!!!!

Posted by: dk | Jul 15, 2008 7:41:20 AM

Every time Americans gas up, they are reminded that the Democrats’ refusal to allow oil drilling virtually anyplace has caused the long-term escalation in oil prices in the United States. Democrats don’t say they oppose all drilling, but they do. You can drill, but not in Alaska, not off shore, not in the shale, etc.. McCain is benefiting and Obama suffering because of the drilling issue. It is most likely this issue which is driving the closing of the race. Rasmussen has the race tied for two days in a row in his tracking and Newsweek has the Obama lead collapsing from fifteen points to three. And it may be oil that is driving the difference.


Posted by: david from texas | Jul 15, 2008 12:10:31 AM

***********************

David, funny how you failed to mention that the U.S.A.'s refineries are already operating at full capacity and are unable to process additional oil even if we had it. You also failed to mention the oil companies refuse to build more refineries because doing so would reduce the price of gas.

Nice try tho, way to try and sucker the unimformed.

Posted by: Steve | Jul 16, 2008 1:20:40 AM

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