Who Is Behind That Ridiculous Ad Polluting The Airwaves?

Over the last couple of days I have been annoyed by a cartoonish, totally ineffectual social media meme-styled political ad from a political PAC misleadingly calling itself the Common Sense Leadership Fund.

This PAC name was formerly a Leadership PAC affiliated with former Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA).

The Hill reports, Conservative group targets Kelly, Hassan over $3.5T spending plan:

A newly formed conservative group is launching an ad campaign targeting Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) over the massive government spending package that Democrats are hoping to approve without GOP support.

The effort by the political nonprofit Common Sense Leadership Fund is being led by Kevin McLaughlin, a longtime Republican operative who served as the executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2020 election cycle.

The campaign is geared toward reaching swing voters in New Hampshire and Arizona with television, radio and digital ads, as well as with grassroots activities.

The effort is looking to seize on voters’ concerns about the price tag of the spending package — $3.5 trillion — and Senate Democratic leaders’ plans to pass the measure through a process known as reconciliation, which wouldn’t require any GOP votes in the evenly divided chamber.

“This partisan budget is a Liberal wish list of special interest kickbacks that will result in fewer individual choices, less jobs and higher taxes for everyone,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

In other words, a standardized GQP attack ad from a GQP political hack with nothing relevant to say. And none of it true from the Party of Lies. Why is this attack ad full of GQP lies running? Because the GQP has no public support on the substance of the bill. Exclusive: As Congress debates, most Americans back Biden’s trillion-dollar spending bills:

The ambitious and expensive Democratic spending bills being debated on Capitol Hill have a big advantage: Most Americans support them.

The $1 trillion infrastructure bill was backed by 63% of Americans in a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll. And the $3.5 trillion budget plan, the most significant expansion of the social safety net since LBJ’s Great Society, was endorsed by 52%.

That positive sentiment among voters should make it easier to gain the backing of members of Congress, despite the narrow Democratic majority in the House and the 50-50 divide in the Senate. It also could create complications for some Republicans, especially those who vote against both of them, with some constituents.

[T]he campaign’s inaugural targets are Kelly and Hassan, both of whom are expected to face competitive reelection races next year. The effort will eventually expand into other states.

Republicans have cast the $3.5 trillion spending proposal as an irresponsible cash dump that will raise taxes [on the wealthy and corporations] and worsen inflation at a time when prices are already on the rise. The ad campaign from the Common Sense Leadership Fund seeks to play on those concerns.

In other words, post-policy GQP fear mongering.

The Washington Post similarly reports, Power Up: New GOP group to launch ads against reconciliation package in New Hampshire and Arizona:

A new, conservative nonprofit is launching a multimillion-dollar ad campaign against the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, targeting vulnerable Democratic lawmakers in New Hampshire and Arizona over the congressional recess, my colleague Paul Kane and I report.

Common Sense Leadership Fund is targeting senators with TV and radio ads, along with digital and grass-roots activities, among swing voters it says have concerns about the $3.5 trillion price tag of the package Democrats intend to pass on a party-line vote.

A source working on the effort told Power Up that more ads will run in additional states. For now, the group plans to target Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), two members facing potentially tough 2022 reelection campaigns. The ads will overlap in areas hosting competitive House races in Arizona and New Hampshire as well.

• • • “Any one senator has the ability to stop this,” the source added. “And in Arizona, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) has already made Kelly’s life more challenging given her view on this piece of legislation.” Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.)supported the budget resolution but both expressed concerns about its cost.
    • “This partisan budget is a liberal wish list of special interest kickbacks that will result in fewer individual choices, less jobs and higher taxes for everyone,” Kevin McLaughlin, president of Common Sense Leadership Fund and former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement. “It will increase the cost of living for working class families and force us into socialist price controls that will restrict medication choices and send manufacturing to hostile nations like China, putting us at their mercy.”

Again, a standardized GQP attack ad from a GQP political hack with nothing relevant to say. And none of it true from the Party of Lies.

Don’t be fooled by this lying GQP fear mongering.