Today, I’m thrilled to announce that our first issue advertisements, targeting Representatives Paul Ryan and Charlie Bass on health care, went on the air in Wisconsin and New Hampshire.
Here is the ad against Paul Ryan. It’s a 60-second spot that will run 174 times over the next week on 1290 WMCS in Milwaukee, WRJN-1400 AM/WEZY-92.FM in Racine, and WCLO AM 1230/-WJVL 99.9FM in Janesville.
Here is the ad against Charlie Bass. Like the Ryan ad, it’s a 60-second spot. In conjunction with Americans United for Change, it will run a total of 232 times over the next week on a variety of stations, particularly WTPL, WNTK and WUVR. It will reach Grafton, Sullivan, Merrimack, Cheshire, Hillsborough and Rockingham counties.
Additionally, our partners in this campaign, Blue America PAC, are airing similarly sized ad buys in FL-24 and NJ-07, as well as supplementing the ad buy against Paul Ryan in WI-01.
The campaign is starting to get some good press pickup, too. Politico:
POPPING TODAY – ‘REPEAL THIS’: A coalition of liberal groups is going up on the radio today with ads targeting Republican members of Congress for voting to repeal health care reform. Americans United for Change and Daily Kos are taking aim at New Hampshire Rep. Charlie Bass’s district, criticizing the Republican congressman for accepting federal health insurance while backing repeal. "When it comes to health care protections, Congressman Charlie Bass thinks he deserves better than you," the ad says. "Congressman Bass gets affordable health care, with protections against insurance companies cutting him and his family off. No lifetime limits. No annual caps. No preexisting conditions. But last month Bass voted to deny you and your family these same protections." Bass’s district is only one target of this radio ad campaign: Daily Kos is also going after Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan and Blue America PAC is going after Florida Rep. Sandy Adams and New Jersey Rep. Leonard Lance with similar ads. Listen to them here: http://bit.ly/...; here: http://bit.ly/...; here: http://bit.ly/...; and here: http://bit.ly/...
Excerpt from JS Online:
House budget chair Paul Ryan of Janesville is the target of a radio ad by the liberal web site Daily Kos, singling out his vote last month to repeal the new health care law. The ad criticizes Ryan for voting to undo the benefits in the law while receiving the health care benefits enjoyed by members of Congress.
More from TPMDC, The Atlantic, USA Today, The Hill, Concord Monitor, and The Note. Expect even more to come, too. Additionally, I will be on WRJN in Racine today, at 2 PM CT / 3 PM ET, discussing the campaign. Check it out if you are in the area.
The thinking behind these ads isn’t to make any of these Republicans change their votes. That’s just not gonna happen. Instead, the idea is to make them pay a political price for their votes, thus softening them up for a potential progressive challenger in 2012 who is willing to use a populist economic message.
With your small donations, more than 1,000 members of the Daily Kos community made this happen. While it’s our first foray into issue advertising, it will not be a one-off event. This is just one of the steps toward building a progressive majority in the House of Representatives in 2013-2014. There are many steps in that process, but we’re going keep getting stronger, and we going make it happen.