New ads focus on Coleman's support for war in Iraq
2007-07-10
Source: St. Paul Star Tribune
Congressional Democrats, poised for a fresh legislative battle over Iraq, are mounting a new television ad campaign today targeting Sen. Norm Coleman's past votes supporting President Bush on the war.
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rss feedThe new ad completes a one-two punch against the Minnesota Republican, who is already the target of a separate TV ad this week sponsored by the national antiwar group Americans United for Change.
The escalating ad buys are part of a national strategy keying on Democrats' major targets in the 2008 congressional elections in a time of declining public support for the war.
The ad blitz also coincides with votes in the House and Senate on a defense policy bill that Democrats intend to turn into a forum for a series of troop withdrawal measures.
While Democrats strived to portray the ads as an effort to lobby Coleman on the war, his office criticized them as a political pressure tactic.
"Senator Coleman believes the debate about the future troop levels in Iraq should take place in an environment free of partisan politics," said his spokesman Tom Steward. "The safety and lives of American soldiers are at stake, and this debate demands more of all of us than simple slogans in a 30-second television ad."
Targets around the country
The labor-funded Americans United for Change, which is mounting a six-figure ad campaign against Coleman, has also run ads against Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and John Sununu of New Hampshire.
They, along with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, also appear to be on the target list of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which said Monday that it is sponsoring a separate ad buy this week against Coleman and three other Republicans.
DSCC operatives declined to name the three others on Monday. However Minnesota Republicans cited a Washington Post Web report using unidentified sources to name the same group of GOP lawmakers as targets of the DSCC's $90,000 ad buy.
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