Freedom's Watch targets Kanjorski, Carney

By Alex Isenstadt, Politicker.com Reporter

WASHINGTON - The cash-strapped National Republican Congressional Committee may be largely quiet on the advertising front, but the conservative advocacy organization Freedom's Watch is ramping up its spending in key House races, launching new advertisements this week in Pennsylvania and a handful of other races.

The organization's new ad in Pennsylvania, out today, accuses U.S. Reps. Chris Carney (D-Dimock Township) and Paul Kanjorski (D-Nanticoke) of being "like taxing twins."

"Both supported big tax increases two years in a row," an announcer says. "One would be the largest in our history. Higher taxes on married couples, people with children, retirement savings, even the death tax. Tell Kanjorski and Carney that higher taxes are not the answer, especially now."

Carney and Kanjorski, who represent districts in northeastern Pennsylvania, have difficult re-election races this cycle. Carney, a freshman, is facing a challenge from businessman Chris Hackett, while Kanjorski is running against Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta.

Freedom's Watch has also launched ads this week in Senate races in Oregon and North Carolina and House races in New Jersey, Alabama, Nevada, and Illinois.

Freedom's Watch declined to say how much it was spending on the new Pennsylvania ads, but most of the organization's spending on spots in House races have reportedly been in the mid-$100,000 range.

Carrie James, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, dismissed Freedom's Watch's ads as being factually shaky.

"Freedoms Watch is a shady soft money group that has a record of running ads that have been taken off the airwaves for being inaccurate. Northeastern Pennsylvanians are eager for solutions to our weakened economy, not attack ads that distort reality," said James.

Alex Isenstadt is a Politicker.com Reporter and can be reached via email at alex.isenstadt@politicker.com.

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Comments

Freedom's Watch

posted by Hal

The market is down 600+ points and the elderly McCain is talking about 60's Ayers and the swift boat monied Freedom's Watch is blathering tax cuts. What, so they can cut out more government regulators and overseers? The entire conservative wing of the Republican is completely out of touch with the American people

10/10/08 6:40 am

This is absurd

posted by Jim D

Nobody cares who Obama is or where he stands. Nobody cares about Ayers, Wright, Resko, Tillman, Conyers, and on and on and on. Doesn't matter if he wants to be surrounded by bad people. It's America, can do whatever you want right? He'll just be president and appoint an army to screw us, but that's okay. We can blame the younger generations for voting Obama. Let's just focus on his pretty message and feel good.

10/10/08 9:13 am

The Market

posted by Debbie L

Hey, Hal. Here's an explanation for all you that don't get what's going on. First off, the market's done a lot more than that. It's dropped about 21% so far and it'll continue for a while yet. It'll equalize with the Dow somewhere around 8,000 and NASDAQ at around 1,100. About a 40% drop or mid 90's levels. What's happening is everyone is pulling their money out of the market. They're scared. The question you need to ask yourself is this: If Obama or Democrats are so much better for the economy, then why is this going on when Obama's so far ahead in the polls, hmmm? Do yourself a favor and stop buying the spin.

10/10/08 9:22 am

Broken

posted by Hal

The economy is funamentally broken and much be fixed. Using your own back to the mid 90s assertion, this means conservatism has left us worse off than when they took complete control of government. As far as Obama, folks are only now coming around to the fact he may well win

10/10/08 9:57 am

don't get it

posted by Hal

This is all a tempest in a swiftboat teapot. By the way, you conservatives will be blamed for this battering of the United States no one else

10/10/08 10:42 am

You're Still Missing the Point

posted by Debbie L

I am neither conseverative nor liberal, Hal. You can believe what you hear on the news or from politicians, but like most you are clueless about the economy. The money being being lost by the market is investors who have every right to sell it if they wish. Fact is that liberal idealogy will not fix things. You know little beyond your party's talking points. You probably believe Clinton was responsible for the boom in the 90's. Fact is, he was not. Neither were the republicans. It was because of the PC. Businesses computerized and the personal computer made it's way into millions of homes worldwide, sparking a technology revolution. If you want to give anyone credit, give it to Ronald Reagan who made grants avaiable to silicon valley for the research that became the modern internet, which also created a new world market. However, I doubt Reagan foresaw the outcome. Clinton's policies actually stifled the technology market and led to the dot com crash in the late 90's. Deregualting the internet's development also led to viruses, hackers, and the many, many nuisances that still exist throughout the internet. It's also why Europe hates us. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't just the war in Iraq. Their intelligence agencies were broken into because of our lax software and they're rightfully pissed. Bill Gates is another liberal that does things half-fast. So go ahead, vote for Obama. When things get much, much worse who are you going to blame?

10/10/08 11:23 am

Blame it on Wall Street

posted by Tood

I should also add this: as Debbie said, investors are a spoiled bunch. Basically, free markets resent liberal or socialist views. In essence, they're afraid that Obama will win and they're saying to him "Oh yeah, if your party knows so darn much about the economy, then you put it back where it was."

For all the blame, the economy has actually expanded during Bush's term. There is a normal cycle of readjustment with the markets and this would have happened anyway. It's only as bad as it is because of the crooked way some firms have done business - not just over the past 8 years but probably the past 20.

For the sake of the election Democrats are trying to spin the blame on Republicans, but that isn't entirely true. Liberals have been in control for the past two years and before that they sabotaged anything the GOP tried, much in the same way the GOP house memebers sabotaged the bailot's first go as a minority.

If your A.D.D. little mind would think back, Dems said right after the elections in both 2000 and 2004 that they were going to fight Bush every day of his presidency and not allow him to "drag this country down." That idiotic sense of partisanship is ruining this country.

Funny, your hero Obama only seems interested in keeping that going.

10/10/08 11:47 am