Thread: Left Blasts Alison Grimes for 'Offensive' TV Ad Attacking McConnell on Amnesty

by Michael Patrick Leahy 14 Oct 2014, 5:37 PM PDT
breitbart



On Tuesday, several left-wing political groups blasted Alison Lundergran Grimes for running television ads attacking her opponent, incumbent Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), for his support of the 1986 immigration reform bill signed by Ronald Reagan that gave amnesty to an estimated 3 million illegal aliens at the time.

The Grimes ad, which was released last week, is designed to give Kentucky voters the impression that McConnell voted for the 2013 Gang of Eight amnesty bill supported by Democrats Harry Reid (D-NV), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and a handful of Republicans, including John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). McConnell voted against the 2013 bill but voted for the 1986 bill twenty-seven years earlier.



In a statement, Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, called on Grimes "to take this offensive advertisement off the air immediately." She added, "[i]t's deeply troubling that Grimes would stoop this low in order to try to defeat McConnell."

"MoveOn members in Kentucky and across the country are contacting millions of voters to help prevent a Republican takeover of the Senate," Sheyman continued, "and it makes that important work harder when Democrats embrace inflammatory Republican rhetoric."

Another left-wing pro-amnesty group, Democracy for America, which was founded by former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, added to the criticism of Grimes. In a statement, executive director Charles Chamberlain said late Tuesday that "[t]he Grimes campaign must take down this offensive ad. It's simply wrong for any Democrat to use right-wing talking points and dehumanize struggling immigrant families."

"Democracy for America members have been proud to work with allies to end Mitch McConnell's 30-year career in Washington and save the Senate from Republican control," Chamberlain added, "but every moment Secretary Grimes fails to remove this hurtful ad ignores the plight of millions and makes our work more difficult."

According to communications director Neil Sroka, "Democracy for America is working with allies in Kentucky on a $500,000 field-based campaign focused on defeating Mitch McConnell."

On August 20, Grimes told a Farm Bureau forum in Kentucky that she would have voted yes on the 2013 Gang of Eight bill, information she did not include in her new ad.

Despite that August statement to the Farm Bureau forum, Grimes sings a different tune at the end of her new ad: "I'm Alison Lundergan Grimes and I approve this message, because I've never supported amnesty or benefits for illegal immigrants, and I never will."

These blue-on-blue attacks toward the Grimes campaign come on the heels of the candidate's recent refusals to say whether or not she voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, a position that NBC's Chuck Todd says "disqualifies" her to serve in the U.S. Senate.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...6-Amnesty-Bill

Wow! Didnt see that coming! Awesome!

W

Democrats pull TV ads in Kentucky Senate race

By Dana Bash and Eric Bradner, CNN
updated 6:36 PM EDT, Tue October 14, 2014

VIDEO AT LINK

Washington (CNN) -- Democrats pulled their TV advertising in Kentucky from now through election day, leaving Senate hopeful Alison Lundergan Grimes without air support from the national party, which had invested heavily in trying to unseat the Senate's top Republican.

It's a sign of how stretched Democrats are in defending their own turf across the country that they can no longer afford to go on offense in the marquee race against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

But Grimes sources insist they'll be fine on their own. The campaign, sources said, is flush with $4.4 million cash on hand -- much more than other Democrats on the ballot this year.

High-stakes debate in Kentucky
"Money is not an issue in this campaign," a Grimes source said.

While the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is coming off the air, national Democrats are still likely to spend money on the ground in Kentucky before election day to help boost Grimes' get out the vote operation.

"We continue to make targeted investments on the ground and will continue to assess the race to decide on future television buys," a Democratic source with knowledge of the DSCC's strategy told CNN.

The move comes as Democrats focus their resources on defending the party's endangered incumbents. Senators like Alaska's Mark Begich, Arkansas' Mark Pryor, Colorado's Mark Udall, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu and New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen are all fighting for survival -- and to keep the GOP from winning the six seats it needs to capture the chamber's majority.

Grimes has been under fire for twice in the last week -- first in an editorial board meeting, and then in a debate with McConnell -- dodging questions about whether she voted for President Barack Obama -- which led NBC's "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd to say that the Democratic secretary of state had "disqualified herself," and Republicans to immediately place that comment in a TV ad.

A Grimes source said that question had come up in debate prep, and she answered it the same way she did during Monday night's debate, saying that as the state's chief election officer, the privacy of the ballot box is "a point of principle with her."
The source said Grimes' campaign hasn't polled on how the fallout over her refusal to disclose how she voted has affected the race, but sees it as a national media-fueled issue.

"The people of Kentucky accept her explanation," the source said, adding that "not one person has come up to her to say she needs to divulge" how she's voted.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/14/politics/dscc-goes-dark-in-kentucky/index.html