The Club for Growth — a conservative group “dedicated to helping elect pro-growth, pro-freedom candidates through political contributions and issue advocacy campaigns” — is already waging war on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, slated to hit the Senate floor June 2. But instead of going after the bill itself, they’re targeting individual senators who seem likely to vote in favor of the bill.
They’ve taken out $250,000 in radio and television ads targeting Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole (N.C.) and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), as well as Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller (both of W.Va.) and Max Baucus and Jon Tester (both of Mont.). Dole is a cosponsor of the bill, and she, Alexander, Baucus, and Rockefeller are all up for reelection in November. The ads are intended to stoke public outrage over climate legislation, which the Club hopes will push these senators away from the bill.
“Congress is at it again,” says a male voice, over scary music. “This time they’re pushing massive new taxes and regulation in the name of global warming. But let’s ask ourselves: Are the unproven benefits of legislation worth the major job losses, new taxes, and increased energy costs that could result?”
It goes on to urge voters to call their senators and tell them to vote “no” on Lieberman-Warner, because they “just can’t afford another huge, costly government program.”
The ads started airing today in North Carolina, West Virginia, and Tennessee, and they’ll air next week in Montana. This is likely the first of many campaigns attacking the Climate Security Act and its supporters, and probably not the last in which right-wing groups target their own.
Watch the Montana ad below the fold:
