Republicans in the House are targeting nine Democratic House members over Democratic opposition to the Keystone pipeline project, claiming Democrats and President Obama are standing in the way of the creation of 130,000 jobs.
The ads target Democrats in areas with large union membership and highlight a rare issue that aligns unions with Republicans and against Democrats.
The National Republican Congressional Committee sponsored Web ads featuring videos targeting Democratic Reps. Jason Altmire (Pa.), Mark Critz (Pa.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Nick Rahall (W.Va.) and Betty Sutton (Ohio).
….Voters in the districts held by those five members will also be receiving robo-calls instructing them to urge their member to buck the White House and support the pipeline. Those calls will also go out to the districts of Democratic Reps. Ben Chandler (Ky.), Dave Loebsack (Iowa), Michael Michaud (Maine) and Tim Walz (Minn.).
It’s kind of hilarious that the NRCC couldn’t afford to make four other web ads. They’re all the same, they just swap out a picture at the end and pay Voice Over Man to say four different names. They don’t even have to pay for airtime.
Still. At least we get robocalls. At least we’re worth that much.
The pipeline deal in question is being pushed by Ed Whitfield and Mitch McConnell. They’re using it to derail the payroll tax debate and obviously they expect it will do just that and there will be more votes to come on the issue.
Here’s one of the web ads the NRCC was able to fund, and presumably the robocalls will hold tight to this basic message:
Lotta jobs that thing’d create, huh? Except, as ThinkProgress reported a month ago, a lot of the numbers are based on a report financed by the company that wants to build the pipeline and the numbers are — what! — inflated:
You will note that even those inflated numbers neither inflate nor appear to create any jobs in the great state of Kentucky.
So Ben Chandler needs our help. A phone call might work.
His DC Office: (202) 225-4706
His Lexington Office: (859) 219-1366
Give the dude a buzz, you don’t want him make another wacky vote do you?
His fear of farm dust was good enough to last a couple weeks, right?
