When an ad begins running in Virginia that gets a candidate so riled up that he immediately issues a statement and calls a press conference call, then you know the ad must have struck a nerve.
Crossroads Grassroots Public Strategies (GPS), affiliated with political strategist Karl Rove, purchased $275,000 to run the 30-second spot “Similarities” throughout the commonwealth. The ad highlights Kaine’s service as governor where he added government spending, wound up with a budget shortfall, and proposed tax hikes to pay for it. Implied in the ad are that the actions under Kaine’s leadership are similar to what is happening in Washington under the watch of President Obama.
Of course, the Kaine campaign is none to pleased to see their candidate’s record exposed like this and immediately called for an opportunity to explain why Crossroads’ was wrong, calling it a “misleading and negative attack ad.”
“The real similarities are between Rove’s claims and George Allen’s big-spending record,” replied Brandi Hoffine in a statement. “As Governor, it was George Allen who grew Virginia’s general fund by more than 45 percent. As Senator, it was Allen who inherited a record surplus and turned it into a record deficit, while adding $3 trillion to our national debt and even voting repeatedly to give himself a raise as our country slipped further into the red.”
But Crossroads stands by their ad.
“The tax and spend similarities between Tim Kaine and Barack Obama hurt Virginia families by piling up mounds of debt instead of earnestly tackling the economic and financial problems our country faces,” said Nate Hodson, Crossroads GPS Director of State and Regional Media Relations. “This spot intends to alert Virginians to the anti-job policies Tim Kaine supports when he should be pushing for real economic solutions to create Virginia jobs.”
Hoffine and Kaine continue to push the meme that they are calling for outside special interest groups not to participate in Virginia’s general election. One presumes they are telling the League of Conservation Voters and unions to immediately halt their efforts.
