The GOP independent spending goliath American Crossroads and its affiliate group Crossroads GPS are launching a new barrage of attack ads in six competitive Senate races, assailing a range of Democratic candidates as big-spending, liberal, ethically challenged and overly close to President Barack Obama.
The ad campaign will total $4.6 million across a half-dozen states, a Crossroads strategist told POLITICO. American Crossroads is targeting the Nebraska, Nevada and Virginia Senate contests, while 501(c)4 group Crossroads GPS is funding the ads in North Dakota, Missouri and Ohio.
Many of the ads follow familiar themes in these races. ( (You can view them all here: Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Nebraska, Nevada, Virginia.) Over and over, the Crossroads groups attempt to take Democrats with fairly strong state-level political profiles and tar them by association with the national party – and the president. The commercial hitting Tim Kaine may be the clearest example of that, asking why the former Virginia governor would have agreed to advocate for Obama’s policies as Democratic National Committee chair.
The American Crossroads ads are express advocacy ads, whereas the Crossroads GPS ads are issue advocacy ads, urging support for the New Majority Agenda.
