Ad Roundup: House edition:
• FL-13: Democrat Charlie Crist relates his biography before his service as governor, even playfully citing his fan kerfuffle from the 2014 governor’s race. He promises to protect Social Security, Medicare, Planned Parenthood, and care for veterans.
• FL-18: Republican Brian Mast promises he’ll fight the expanded rail line project All Aboard Florida, which would connect Miami and Orlando. He claims the proposed route would lower property values and could endanger children. Mast stands on a dock while speaking to the camera, a striking visual since he lost both of his legs during his Army service in Afghanistan.
• FL-26: Republican Carlos Curbelo’s Spanish-language spot features several Hispanic voters praising his performance in office.
• MI-07: Democrat Gretchen Driskell attacks Republican Rep. Tim Walberg for supporting bad trade deals, claiming she will fight them if elected.
• MN-02: Republican Jason Lewis decries Democrat Angie Craig’s attacks against him. He claims that while he might be politically incorrect - that would be a charitable way to describe his long history of offensive statements - he will be an independent voice for Minnesota.
• MN-03: The DCCC continues to tie Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen to Donald Trump. This spot features a couple in a video store looking at DVDs of Erik Paulsen and Donald Trump, saying “No one buys these anymore.” They subsequently frame Paulsen’s efforts to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage and criminalize abortion as relics of the past, before noting the Trump story features the same things, plus Trump mocking the disabled and degrading women.
• NE-02: The NRCC attacks Democratic Rep. Brad Ashford, claiming he voted against funding for troops fighting ISIS, supported cities that don’t enforce certain immigration laws, and voted to release terrorists from Guantanamo. First, Ashford’s votes were on amendments to force a formal war powers authorization vote, not against the principle of the anti-ISIS funding itself. The second vote would have deprived certain cities of federal grant money for law enforcement efforts, which Ashford claims he opposed instead of wanting to protect unauthorized immigrants from deportation. Finally, Ashford has voted against closing Guantanamo and transferring any more prisoners, but had previously voted against Republican proposals on the matter in 2015, claiming they went too far in limiting the president’s authority.
• NH-01: In her first ad, Democratic ex-Rep. Carol Shea-Porter highlights her middle-class upbringing, promising she will “work to restore the American dream” for struggling middle-class families.
• NY-03: Democrat Tom Suozzi responds to a recent NRCC ad that attacked him for raising taxes, and he goes after Republican Jack Martins for the same thing. Suozzi smartly does not repeat the attacks against him, but calls Martins a hypocrite who raised property taxes 31 percent and his own pay by 61 percent during his tenure as mayor of Mineola. Suozzi’s later claim might sound great in an attack ad, but that salary increase was only from $18,000 to $29,000. Even though it was a part-time position, it’s hardly like we’re talking about living in luxury on the public dime, but it will be up to Martins to try to make that defense.
• NY-19: Democrat Zephyr Teachout speaks directly to the camera and decries the negative attacks against her. She highlights one ad calling her dangerous and another that claims she wants to raise property taxes. It’s usually not a good idea to highlight most specific attacks against you, since they will be on voters’ minds for whatever the rest of your message is about. Teachout does castigate Republican John Faso for being a lobbyist in the pocket of the wealthy Wall Streeters who fund those negative attacks, but that’s a strong enough message to stand on its own without doing Republicans any favors by repeating their specific charges.
• VA-10: Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock touts her bipartisanship and independence, claiming she successfully fought for a law giving $600 billion in tax breaks to families and businesses. That refers to the bipartisan 2015 omnibus appropriations compromise, which mostly just extended existing tax-breaks that were set to expire and delayed Obamacare taxes that were set to kick in.