OH-05: DCCC Ad; ODP Website; RNCC Dumps Quarter Million
Submitted by Jeff on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 7:57am.
The ad connects Latta to unpopular former GOP governor Bob Taft and the recent Coingate scandal by pointing out that Latta received $1,000 from convicted Republican power-broker Tom Noe. It also hammers Latta on the finding of campaign misconduct against him by the Ohio Elections Commission in the GOP primary, including his own lawyer's concession at the hearing that Latta's campaign was "misleading" and dealt State Sen. Steve Buehrer (R-Delta) a "low blow."
Lots of developments in this race. Here is the attack ad against State Rep. Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) being run by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee:
The ad connects Latta to unpopular former GOP governor Bob Taft and the recent Coingate scandal by pointing out that Latta received $1,000 from convicted Republican power-broker Tom Noe. It also hammers Latta on the finding of campaign misconduct against him by the Ohio Elections Commission in the GOP primary, including his own lawyer's concession at the hearing that Latta's campaign was "misleading" and dealt State Sen. Steve Buehrer (R-Delta) a "low blow."
The Ohio Democratic Party is also attacking Latta with its new web site aWholeLattaLove.com, decked out in creepy hot pink and black, which features negative TV ads from the GOP primary on the sidebar and text that slams Latta for voting for higher taxes, increased drivers' license fees, and the biggest state budget ever; holding investments in oil companies while receiving contributions from them; and receiving Noe campaign money. It also makes a bizarre and pointless joke about the name "Latta" and drinking fru-fru lattes.
Meanwhile, the DCCC expenditure of $157,000 has drawn an enormous response from the National Republican Congressional Committee. The NRCC has pumped $280,000 into the race for direct mail and TV advertising against Weirauch. As James Lambert comments on Swing State Project, that's "money the GOP can't afford to spend -- their latest fundraising report showed the committee to still be carrying a net debt of $1 million (compared to a net surplus of $27 million for the DCCC)."
UPDATE: Here is what CQ Politics has to say about it:
That the NRCC is spending its relatively limited financial resources in such a strongly Republican-leaning district suggests that House Republican campaign officials are not taking the race for granted — and that the contest may be closer than is suggested by the district’s political demographics and election history.
Lisa Renee at Glass City Jungle posts about the DCCC ad and wonders if it might be taken as violating Weirauch's "no negative campaigning" pledge, although DCCC expenditures are required to be completely independent from campaigns. She also links to GOP attacks against Weirauch for her "far-left liberal positions."
2nd UPDATE:The Toledo Blade reports on the TV ad wars. The RNCC has written to TV stations calling on them to pull the DCCC ad as "defamatory," and has purchased $162,000 of additional advertising time to respond. The article also quotes the DCCC as saying that they began to participate in the race after seeing "the excitement of the people across the district," and comments that the DCCC's motivation may have just as much to do with forcing the NRCC to spend money as with winning.
