In a not so surprising mistake, the latest ad from the Senate Majority PAC is missing a few things. The PAC, which is run by former aides to Harry Reid, has put out a new ad in Louisiana in an effort to help Mary Landrieu win the senate seat against the republican challenger, Bill Cassidy.
The voiceover in the new ad states,
“We’ve been battered by hurricanes, lost everything to floods. And for thousands of Louisianans, flood insurance and hurricane relief are our only protection. But the out-of-state billionaire Koch brothers funded the fight to let flood insurance premiums soar, helping the insurance companies and cut off hurricane relief for Louisiana families. Now they’re spending millions to buy a Senate seat for Bill Cassidy so he can fight for them. If the Kochs and Cassidy win, Louisiana loses.”
Not only are the claims in this ad extremely exaggerated (they earned 4 pinocchios from the Washington Post), but it seems the PAC didn’t do their research before putting this advertisement together.
According to a recent Politico investigation into the Koch brothers and how they spend their money, it appears that the Kochs don’t just give to Republicans, like so many people believe, and in fact have given money to Senator Mary Landrieu. They found that since 2000, Ms. Landrieu has accepted $55,000 from the KochPAC.
Gee, that doesn’t seem like the best strategy to make their point. The point is supposed to be that the Kochs are evil and that Landrieu is above taking their money. Hmmm.
The Washington Post brought about a great argument when it comes to looking at these political ads; although the individual lines may be correct, the overall impression it gives voters is not correct. So not only do we have an ad that misleads voters in terms of information provided in the ad about the competitor, but we are also seeing information withheld from voters. Perhaps the Senate Majority PAC should look at their strategy again.