House Majority PAC To Drop $2.2M, First NY Target: Hayworth (Updated)
September 12, 2012
The House Majority PAC, a left-leaning Super PAC that’s trying to help the House Democrats in their quest to win back the majority, is launching a $2.2 million TV ad blitz in six competitive House districts across the nation – including one in New York.
One of the PAC’s first targets is Rep. Nan Hayworth, a freshman Republican who is being challenged for her Hudson Valley seat (now redrawn as NY-18) by Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney.
The other targeted districts are: CA-07, IA-04, NC-07, OH-06 and WI-07.
Hayworth won in 2010 with support from the Tea Party, even though she’s a self-professed pro-choice Republican.
Critics say her voting record belies her claims on women’s health care, revealing her to be more in line with the conservatives controlling the House GOP than more moderate voters back home.
The ad will run for several weeks and the buy is in the high six figures, I’m told.
This is the House Majority PAC’s first official foray into New York, where there’s an unusually high number of competitive congressional races, thanks to the court-draw redistricting map approved earlier this year.
I believe this is also the first major outside expenditure in a New York House race.
The US Chamber of Commerce released some TV ads this past spring – including one that praised Hayworth for protecting small businesses from tax increases.
The chamber cooperated with the state Business Council on three of the seven ads in its campaign, but they weren’t on the air long, and came fairly early in the election cycle at a time when few voters were actually paying attention.
Here’s the script for the House Majority PAC ad:
“Some tea parties are nice. But Nan Hayworth’s Washington Tea Party would roll back decades of progress for women.”
“Hayworth votes with extreme Tea Party Republicans, undermining a woman’s choice and defunding Planned Parenthood.”
“Hayworth’s campaign took over $800,000 from the health care industry, and she’s voted to let insurance companies deny women access to birth control, mammograms and cancer screenings.”
“Nan Hayworth, wrong kind of tea party.”
UPDATE: Hayworth spokesman Michael Knowles sent this response:
“Bad poll numbers and dismal fundraising have unhinged the Maloney campaign, and they’ve led to silly and self-defeating ads like this one.”
“Congresswoman Hayworth is a center-right candidate in a center-right district, fiscally responsible and socially moderate. The ad would be more effective if it were titled ‘Wrong District’ and highlighted the absurdity that Sean Maloney has never lived a day of his life in the district he wants to represent.”