Landrieu touts fight for oil and gas jobs in new ad
(CNN) - Pushing back after months of negative television commercials from pro-Republican outside groups, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana is taking to the airwaves Tuesday with a new ad that touts her efforts on behalf of the oil and gas industry, which employs 300,000 people in the state.
The one-minute long spot shows Louisiana residents at home, at a restaurant, and at work, watching news clips of the three-term senator.
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"For years she's forced Washington to respect Louisiana," says the narrator in the commercial, followed by a clip of Landrieu saying "the administration's policies are simply wrong when it comes to oil and gas production in this nation."
The ad then highlights Landrieu's efforts in ending the federal government's moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling, which was implemented following the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and her successful battle to force the federal government to share offshore royalties with Louisiana and other oil and gas producing states.
The narrator in the spot goes on to say that "now as the new chairman of the Energy Committee, she holds the most powerful position in the Senate for Louisiana."
America Rising PAC, a pro-GOP opposition research shop, criticized Landrieu's campaign for recreating news clips of the Senator speaking at a committee hearing that were used in the ad.
National Republican Senatorial Committee Communications Director Brad Dayspring described the clip as "deceptive" and said that "If Mary Landrieu cared about being honest with voters in Louisiana, she'd appropriately label the footage as a dramatization or a reenactment."
The Landrieu campaign responded by pointing to official Senate rules which state that "the use of any tape duplication of any radio or television coverage of the proceedings of the Senate for political campaign purposes is strictly prohibited."
Landrieu's campaign says they're spending $250,000 to run the commercial statewide for a week.
The message in the ad that Landrieu's fighting for Louisiana by pushing back against President Barack Obama and Washington stands in contrast to the slew of spots by outside conservative groups that portray the senator as a strong supporter of the President and his federal health care law.
Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group backed by the deep pockets of the industrialist Koch brothers, has spent more than $3 million to run ads in Louisiana that highlight Landrieu's 2010 vote in favor of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
Landrieu's new spot is her second commercial of her re-election campaign. Her first ad, released at the beginning of the year, touted her efforts to convince the President to make sure that people who lost their health insurance because of new Obamacare requirements could keep it for another year, holding Obama to his earlier promise.
Democrats hold a 55-45 majority in the Senate (53 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the party), but are defending 21 of the 36 seats up in November, with half of those Democratic-held seats in red or purple states, like Louisiana.
Landrieu–along with fellow Democratic incumbent Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, and Mark Begich of Alaska–faces a challenging re-election, as she has in the past. She won 50% of the vote in her 1996 election, and 52% of the vote in her 2002 and 2008 re-elections. In presidential elections, the state has become reliably red, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney carrying Louisiana by 17 percentage points in 2012 and Sen. John McCain of Arizona winning the state by 19 points in 2008.
This time around Landrieu faces a Republican field that includes two major candidates: GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy and Rob Maness, who's backed by more conservative groups.
I do not like Dem who are wimps and she is one of them.
Teacher
Does anyone here realize that all you have to do is replace "Koch" with "Soros", and it's essentially the same thing for Democrats?
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Umm...wrong. This false equivalency has been spouted for years. He's always been a major donor to Dems, sure...he contributed 1 million to a democratic PAC in the 2012 election cycle. He doesn't come anywhere CLOSE to what the Kochs are doing. They money they've ALREADY spent trying to buy the Senate in 2014 dwarfs that. They have personally funded efforts against every Democrat up for re-election. They fund probably 3 out of 4 of every supposedly "grass roots" conservative action committee that you see running an ad. And why? Are they doing this to "save the country"? Wake up, they're doing it because they want to own the process. They don't care about the people.
i am sure she has a lot of clout with obama and reid .....not,,,
@Proud dem and Tampa Tim-You want call out the Koch Bros. but you want to give Soros and other liberal donors a pass. You can`t have it both ways. Call them both out instead of showing in your face hypocrisy.
Typical democrat voter and CNN/MSNBC viewer:
Tampa Tim
Teacher – the Kochs spent over a billion dollars to ensure that the uninsured would not get access to health care. Are you saying Soros spent a billion dollars to make sure uninsured Americans would have health insurance? What do you teach?
For a couple years since the SCOTUS decision on campaign financing the Democrats with the help of the liberal media have been demonizing these "Koch" brothers. It has gotten to the point that Party leaders like Harry reid etc. have openly called the Koch's out by name to smear them with lies and call them "un American" Other powerful Dems are somewhat responsible for the IRS suppressing Conservative political voices. This is nothing less than the Democrats pushing a tyranny in the US Govt while counting on their friends in the media to stay silent.
I truly fear the way things are headed. The only way to stop this disturbing trend is for the American people to vote in huge numbers this Nov for candidates who will walk us back from what could turn out to be a collapse of this country.
smith – Soros this, Soros that and Soros also that...
Just tell me, when did Soros pumped as much money as the Koch brothers in any election of the past three or four years. 'AS MUCH' being the key words. Yeah, he is a billionaire, like the Koch Bros., and yeah he pumps money into elections, like the Koch Brothers and pretty much every major donor from both right and left (and the independents in the middle) in the country.
So why does the Koch Brothers stand out so much?
The AMOUNT of money they spend (and on what on a lesser, but not much, extent).
Tell us of a guy that has ever spent as much as them, comparatively that is, in the past. Can you remember one?
Umm the question would be how hard considering it is most of the dems that oppose it including the leadership in the senate and the dems in the house? Could she just playing politics and knowing all along she is going to change anything and really doesn't want to change anything? She isn't for the gas an oil companies, but a political hack doing anything to get elected. We already have enough of those on both side of the isle.
Before the Koch crows, she shall deny Obama three times.
Does anybody believe this is a fight she is willing to go to the mat for? Lets see the president Obama a dem is against, the majority leader in the senate Harry Reid a dem is against, the minority leader in the house Nancy Pelosi is against it. Most of the dems in both house and senate are against it. So do any of you think she will do the good for it, or is she just being a political hack doing what ever it takes to get elected? I don't know about you all, but I think we have enough hacks on both side of the isle, who only care about reelection and not about the American people.
Proud Dem
You are correct there is no comparison between the Koch brothers and Soros. How many good paying jobs has Soros created vs the Koch brothers? Yes Soros has created jobs in the financial sector, but they are not middle American jobs like the Koch jobs, now are they? Lets try a different way to look at it, the Koch brothers donate to PBS, Hospitals creating even more jobs. What kind of donation does Soros support that aren't political?
I have called out the stupidity of the Supreme Court, the Kochs, Rove, and Adelson for buying elected officials. Soros has not tried to influence national, state, and local elections to that same degree. As for the Kochs, why would anyone spend over $1 billion to see that uninsured Americans do not have access to health care?
tampa
7.5 million insure by the ACA, of those how many are they from the ranks of 40 million uninsured before the ACA? Even if it was all which we know is not the case, because the ACA kick more then 6 million off the insurance they liked and wanted to keep. So the only people how was denying anyone health care was the dems.
Tampa, you are correct in saying that if you only look at PAC contributions, the TWO brothers have outspent Mr. Soros over the past decade. However, if you look at spending towards 527 groups, Soros blows them out of the water $32 million to $1.5. It is not a false equivalency to suggest that both Soros and the Kochs want to control the political donation game. The problem you have is that you don't like what the Kochs spend their money on (which includes some Democratic candidates), and you like what Soros spends his money on. That is fine, but don't try to say that George Soros is a benevolent, altruistic business man while the Kochs are bent on world destruction. They are both the same. And by the way, I teach college government. Just so you know.
@Marcus-Koch Bros. and Soros are doing the same thing. You can`t justify Soros because the Koch`s spent more money.
smith – 'Koch Bros. and Soros are doing the same thing' – Wrong.
Soros and pretty much 90% of al donors of the Republican Party (that also are millionaires) are doing the same thing.
The Koch Bros. stand on a league of their own.