Comstock Hits the Airwaves; Bennett Complains About Equal Pay While Urging Tax Increases, Pentagon Cuts

Barbara Comstock has launched her first paid advertisement of the 2016 campaign season.

Here’s the transcript, if you prefer reading.

I’m Barbara Comstock’s daughter, Caity.

My mother has always been there for our family and brings the same commitment to all the families she represents in Congress.

Barbara Comstock get results:

Passing legislation to combat human trafficking and heroin.

Supporting 21st century cures for chronic diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

Increasing defense and national security to protect us.

People call her hard working…but I just call her, Mom.

Northern Virginians have been subjected to a barrage of advertising from 10th District Democratic Candidate LuAnn Bennett over the last few weeks.  Whether it was on Youtube, cable or broadcast, you couldn’t swing a dead cat anywhere in the 10th District without running into an advertisement from Bennett.  It’s clear that she’s dumped a ton of cash into raising her name ID quickly in August and early September, and given her fundraising to date, she probably had to write a significant personal check to her campaign to afford the ad blitz, even with DCCC help.

Most of the ads Bennett has been running have been what you’d expect – a bio ad, and then a nonsensical attack on Comstock about equal pay.

Given the concerns of voters in the 10th District, it’s hard to understand why the first attack Bennett would level at Comstock would be about equal pay.  Besides trying to tie Comstock to Donald Trump, Bennett has also spent an inordinate amount of time digging holes that will be hard for her to climb out of when 10th District voters begin focusing on this race.

First, the NRCC has been dumping on Bennett for being an elitist a few weeks now (probably not the best attack in a district that includes parts of the two wealthiest counties in America), but their latest attack on Bennett highlights her willingness to raise taxes, which is something that will likely perk the ears of a lot of 10th District voters.

Second, the Winchester Star noted that Bennett “[i]n a profile on the website for the Council for a Livable World — which is affiliated with the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation — [she] is described as supporting a responsible move to nuclear disarmament and “would reduce the nuclear weapons budget, and believes U.S. Pentagon spending is too high.”  You can see it for yourself here.  

Pentagon spending being too high isn’t likely a message that’s going to resonate with the tens of thousands of military personnel, veterans and defense industry workers who call the 10th District home.

Bennett has not put together a coherent message other than Donald Trump is bad and Barbara Comstock and Donald Trump happen to be in the same political party.  Her policy positions seem to be doctrinaire Democrat, which is not a fit for a district like the 10th, where no Democrat has gotten more than 40% of the vote since 1982.

Comstock, on the other hand, is running the best message that any elected official can run – she gets results.

There are few freshmen in Congress who have her record of achievement.  This is especially apparent when you compare her to the other Virginia freshmen, especially the one in the 7th District.  Comparing their records is like comparing the sun to a 5 watt light bulb.

As Caity pointed out in this first ad, Barbara has built up a solid record in the 10th District and it’s one of real achievement on issues that matter to the working families, like mine, in the 10th District.  Fighting against the government shutdown and the sequester, protecting national security and defense funding, helping pass the surface transportation bill, helping pass bipartisan human trafficking legislation, working on the heroin epidemic are just a few of the things she’s done, and her work as a subcommittee chair on the Science and Technology committee are just a few of the things she’s been doing, and those are issues that matter in the 10th District.

While LuAnn Bennett tries to buy herself a Congressional seat, Barbara Comstock has been working hard to earn hers.

And we’ll likely tell on election day that voters can tell the difference.