Don’t you hate it when you get caught saying something that completely contradicts what you said before? Yeah. That’s basically what happened to an Ohio businessman featured in a new ad targeting Democratic Senate candidate Ted Strickland’s handling of the economy when he was governor. Here’s how Keith Kingrey, vice president of Tipp City’s SK Mold & Tool, remembers things in a newly released ad, sponsored by the Koch-backed Freedom Partners Action Fund PAC.
“I remember when Ted Strickland was governor,” says Kingrey. “Companies were leaving right and left. Taxes were going up. Ohio lost over 350,000 jobs under Ted Strickland.”
What Kingrey seems to have forgotten in the ad is how well his company was doing when Strickland was still governor in 2010. In fact, here’s what he told the Dayton Daily News in 2011, after his company had expanded in 2008 by acquiring Sun Machine and Tool Corp. in Troy, OH.
“It started picking up in 2010 pretty good. Last year was a pretty decent year,” Kingrey said. “This year every quarter, it continues to get better and better.”
Well, that’s awkward.
“Even the person used by the Koch Brothers in this ad previously praised the economy under Ted Strickland and said what newspapers and fact checkers have confirmed: Ohio’s economic recovery began under Ted,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Daniel van Hoogstraten. “It’s no surprise that wealthy, shadowy special interests like the Kochs are propping up their puppet Rob Portman — because at every turn, Portman is pushing their agenda at the expense of Ohio’s working families.”
Kingrey defended his recollection in a follow up interview with the newspaper, saying Strickland “did not do us any favors,” though he admitted that things had been slowly “picking up” in 2010. Yep, seems like that’s what it looks like when the state and the nation are coming out of a recession.
By the way, this is just the latest #AdFail by the Koch brothers, including mishits leveled at Democratic Senate candidates Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada.
Please donate $3 to help turn the Senate blue. The future of the Supreme Court depends on it.