On Tuesday, the team at Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies continued to attack President Barack Obama and Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson -- both of whom appear to be headed for fights in the Sunshine State as they seek another term in office.
Steven Law, the president of Crossroads GPS and former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor who also had a stint with the National Republican Senate Committee, took aim at Obama and Nelson, pointing to unemployment numbers released by the state of Florida last week.
From the stimulus package to bailouts to health care, the failed economic agenda of President Obama and Bill Nelson has saddled every man, woman, and child with more than $48,000 in debt without bringing down Floridas unemployment, Law said in a statement released on Tuesday.As more than 954,000 Floridians are still without jobs, it is time for Obama and Nelson to focus on real economic solutions, not another hodgepodge of wasteful government stimulus programs that their past mistakes have shown wont work.
The Crossroads GPS team pointed to employment figures from when Nelson took office and contrasted them with the most recent numbers from October 2011. When Nelson took office in January 2001, 310,687 Floridians were out of work. As of October 2011, that number stood at 954,820. Back in January 2001, the unemployment rate in Florida stood at 3.9 percent while in October 2011 it was 10.3 percent.
Crossroads GPS is part of American Crossroads, a conservative political organization with ties to many prominent Republican leaders, including legendary strategist Karl Rove. In October and November, the group released ads in Florida taking aim at Obama, using a quote from former President Bill Clinton to bash the president for proposing to raise taxes.
Crossroads GPS ran ads for two weeks across Florida, hitting Fort Myers-Naples, Jacksonville, Orlando-Daytona Beach, Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg and West Palm Beach. The group also ran ads in other battleground states including Colorado, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
