As Americans prepare for Memorial Day weekend -- a time when presidential campaigns keep a lower-than-usual profile -- super-PACs have stepped into the void and are hitting their opponents in new ads and videos.
Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies (Crossroads GPS), a conservative super-PAC with ties to many prominent Republicans including strategist Karl Rove, on Tuesday unveiled a new commercial hitting the airwaves in Florida. The ad rips into President Barack Obama for his management of the economy and federal spending.
This ad drives home the impact President Obamas policies are having on American families and why those policies need to be changed, insisted Steven Law, the president of Crossroads GPS, on Tuesday. We want there to be a serious debate on the real issues people are facing in this country, and this ad expresses the human element of that debate.
The ad starts on Wednesday and will be running for three weeks at a cost to Crossroads GPS of $2.3 million.
Earlier in the month, Crossroads GPS announced it would launch a $25 million ad buy in Florida and other battleground states Obama carried in 2008 that Republicans want to win back in November -- Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Obamas allies fired back in a video launched on Tuesday by Priorities USA Action, a super-PAC that supports Democrats. Priorities USA Action unveiled a Web video featuring attacks from prominent Republicans ripping into former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romneys record in the private sector. The ad features attacks on Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, from some of his defeated GOP primary rivals, including Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
"Even Republicans know Mitt Romney has not explained how his experience profiting from companies driven to bankruptcy qualifies him to be president, insisted Bill Burton, a senior strategist with Priorities USA Action, on Tuesday. If Romney makes business experience the central reason for his campaign, voters have every right to question the many deals where Romney made millions while workers lost their jobs and promised benefits.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
