More ‘Lie of the Year’ Ads Target Shaheen

It’s 2014, and it appears as if the political campaign season has officially begun, with a political action committee targeting New Hampshire’s senior Senator with a major ad buy and Democrats scrambling to raise money to counter the effort.

A new Americans for Prosperity 30-second television spot targeting U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, for voting for the Affordable Care Act begins airing on WMUR-TV on Jan. 2, according to Tweets by the station and fundraising emails sent by Shaheen.

The ad buy is around $200,000, and offers similar themes and quotes from news stories that an ad from Ending Spending raised last month.

The narration in the ad points to Shaheen saying, from the Senate floor, that people would be able to keep their insurance if the law was approved, a statement that was deemed the “Lie of the Year” by PolitiFact.com. The narration also quotes from new stories noting that many New Hampshire residents will have to drive long distances for care due to the only out-of-group insurance carrier in the state, Anthem, eliminating coverage from half the hospitals in the state.

The ad then asks viewers to call Shaheen to tell her that “it’s time to be honest” about the ACA law.

Shaheen’s campaign supporters, finding out about the ad buy yesterday, launched a fundraising effort, asking supporters to help her “respond right away” to the ad buy.

“The Tea Party billionaires spent over $8 million attacking New Hampshire Democrats in 2012 and could spend even more this time,” the fundraising email from Kari Thurman from Friends of Jeanne Shaheen stated. “That’s because they’re laser-focused on winning the Senate, and they need to defeat Jeanne in New Hampshire to do it. It will take raising $406.25 an hour until midnight to raise the rest of our $105,000 goal and be ready to go toe-to-toe with the Kochs, Brown and the national GOP.”