This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, May 2, 2012 - Amid heightened national focus on her re-election race, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., has released a new ad – her third – about how she’s a national target of SuperPACs, who she claims are tied to the “special interests’’ out to defeat her.
The campaign is spending about $300,000 to air the ad, which is a significant buy in Missouri.
Said McCaskill’s campaign: “The ad underscores the key question in Missouri's Senate election: whether Missouri's senator should be a voice for Missouri's middle-class families or another vote to protect Washington special interests?"
"Missourians deserve a senator who's willing to stand up to the special interests and it's clear that Claire McCaskill is the only one with the guts to take them on," said Adrianne Marsh, McCaskill's campaign manager, in a statement. "What Missourians need to know is that these Washington special interests aren't just trying to silence Claire -- they're spending millions to distort Claire's record because they know the other candidates in this race would be a rubber stamp for their special-interest agenda, whether it's protecting tax breaks for Big Oil, ending Medicare as we know it or privatizing student loans.”
Such an approach allows McCaskill to attack simultaneously all three of her chief Republican rivals – St. Louis businessman John Brunner, former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman and U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Wildwood -- without naming any of them.
Her campaign casts her message a bit differently, as a way to jab at opponents while portraying her as a fighter: "Claire's never been afraid to step on big toes in Washington and she'll never stop fighting for Missouri's middle-class families."
Here's the text of the ad, entitled"Back Again":
Narrator: They just keep coming back. Secret money, attacking Claire McCaskill. These big oil and insurance companies don't want you to know who they are, but here's what they want to do.
Narrator: End Medicare as we know it.
Visual: Special interests who want to end Medicare
Narrator: Cut student loans for college.
Visual: Special interests who want to cut student loans
Narrator: And keep giving taxpayer subsidies to the big oil companies.
Visual: Special interests who want more taxpayer subsidies to big oil companies
Narrator: But Claire McCaskill will fight them. Always has. Always will.
Disclaimer: I'm Claire McCaskill and I approve this message.
Visual: Claire McCaskill. Senate.
Update: Missouri Republican Party executive director Lloyd Smith contended that McCaskill is unfairly attacking special interests, while also benefiting from a different bloc of special interests.
"This ad is yet another example of Chameleon Claire saying one thing and doing the opposite," Smith said. "McCaskill is criticizing ads exposing her record of voting in lockstep with Barack Obama—but she has remained silent as her liberal allies and special interests pour secret money into Missouri on her behalf. As McCaskill herself has said, ‘Don’t take anyone seriously that says one thing and does another.’”
Smith was referrring to more than $600,000 in ad buys aired in Missouri by pro-McCaskill groups, including VoteVets.org, the Majority PAC and Patriot Majority USA.
However, such spending is drafted by the $3 million-plus that has been spent on ads aired by groups critical of McCaskill or out to defeat her. They include Crossroads GPS (a SuperPAC with ties to former Bush adviser Karl Rove) and the National Chamber of Commerce.
