Search
Close this search box.

Updated: Anti-Smith IE Hits PA Airwaves (Watch Video)

A new Super PAC is on the air in Pa., taking aim at U.S. Senate front runner Tom Smith. The 30 second spot, from the Freedom Fund for America’s Future, hammers Smith on his Democratic past.

“Fact: Tom Smith claims to be a Republican. But before running for Senate, he was a Democrat for 42 years, curiously converting just months ago,” a narrator says.

“Fact: Smith raised taxes on Pennsylvanians when he was a local politician. Not once, but 9 times.”

The charges in the ad are the same as those being leveled at Smith by his opponents, most notably Steve Welch.

In response, Smith’s campaign released its own ad today. It rebuts the IE as well as Welch’s most recent ad – which contains the same lines of attack.

“Voters aren’t falling for liberal Steve Welch’s negative attacks on lifelong conservative Tom Smith, so it’s no surprise Welch is polling in a distant third place,” said Campaign Manager Jim Conroy. “The truth is that Tom Smith has supported conservative candidates and causes for decades, while Steve Welch was voting for Barack Obama and raising money for ultra-liberal Joe Sestak.”

Watch Smith’s new spot here.

The Freedom Fund for America’s Future was formed on March 19, and received only on contribution prior to the April 4 pre-primary reporting deadline – meaning that its funding sources are unknown at present.

The only clue from its FEC filings is a $5,000 receipt and $5,000 disbursement on the same day – to Long/Nyquist Consulting in Harrisburg.

A GOP media consultant close to the Smith campaign said his sources saw the fingerprints of Brabender/Cox on the buy. The firm has firewalls in place between his work and that of employees working with IEs, says Welch media consultant John Brabender.

Update: an FEC filing confirms that Brabender/Cox did produce and place the ad. The buy totals a hefty $145,000.

Presently, the ad is airing only in the Johnstown market. The consultant said it was running at a health 800 gross ratings points, meaning the buy figures between $30,000 and $35,000.

Update: the ad will also appear on cable (Fox News) in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.

Another Republican media consultant said, should the ad air solely there, it could be an effort to prevent Smith from reaching critical mass in his geographic base in western Pa.

Here’s the full transcript.

“Fact: Tom Smith claims to be a Republican. But before running for Senate, he was a Democrat for 42 years, curiously converting just months ago.

Fact: Smith has even donated thousands to liberal Democrats.

Fact: Smith raised taxes on Pennsylvanians when he was a local politician. Not once, but 9 times.

Fact: conservative Republicans can’t trust Tom Smith.

18 Responses

  1. Funny, I just received an email from the Tea Party group that was being forwarded from Steve Welch telling us what a liar Tom Smith is for his negative ads. Seems to me that Mr. WELCH started this negative ad war against his opponents and now doesn’t like the backlash ads from his opponents. What goes around, comes around Mr. Welch. You are a very poor loser.

  2. Sorry to hear that about Katy. I also know Rohrer, and his family and can vouch that he’s the real, genuine deal. I’ve worked with many campaigns on the grassroots level and this is the first time I haven’t been able to find any negatives. He’s a rarity. It’s his humility and gentleman-like conduct that sets him far apart from most politicians.

  3. Hey, team, where is the discussion of ISSUES?

    As Guzzardi has emphasized, all would be better than Casey/BHO.

    The only disclaimer [from my perspective] is that Scaringi supports Paul [neoisolationist] and Welch demonstrated an inability to discuss substantive foreign policy [after multiple prods, after he was told he had initially given “the wrong answer” when–after a back-and-forth–he adhered to relying upon economic sanctions to stop Iran’s Nuke program].

    Jon David Fox reports a long-term positive interaction with Christian, I can corroborate in-depth knowledge of the Constitutions by Rohrer, and Guzzardi feels Smith is best prepared monetarily to win in November.

    Let’s chill, OK?

  4. Regarding Sam Rohrer…I give you Katy Abram’s deleted tweet from Friday morning:

    @katyabram: @MaxofthApostles I worked 4him that’s why I am not voting 4 him. Sometimes u learn about what people r really like after working w them 🙁

  5. Tom Smith is running solely to give his children a better America? Not buying it. When those of us in the Armstrong- Indiana County areas think of Smith, the last thing we think of is an advocate for children. Smith has proven he’s not interested in parents concerns about their children’s education or his own community. As a typical narcissist, Tom Smith can put on the show but to those who really know him, his actions speak a different story

    Smith is trying to buy his way into the senate the way he bought his daughter a job at the Armstrong County Courthouse by being top contributor to Commissioner Battaglia’s campaign. If elected, he can double dip into the pension fund thanks to his wife’s hefty teaching retirement.

    Speaking of Smith’s kids. Many of us are wondering where are they ? His ads only show his two biological daughters. Where are his adopted children? Or do they not fit into the demographic he’s hoping to win over?

    I’m sure Smith became a Republican due to his alliance with the local good ole boys club. Led by the corrupt Senator Don White, I’m sure he was assured support if he changed parties.

  6. I can’t believe Braebender left their name on this. Does anyone believe that their final 20 day donation wasn’t earmarked for this ad? That’s a no no.
    For a premium price you’d expect premium service and this looks like an amateur? They need to work with smarter people.

  7. Smith contributed heavily to Rohrer, Corbett,
    and Toomey.

    He’s been aligned with conservatism his whole
    life.

    He has a great record as a family man (with adopted children), a businessman, and a patriot–
    having founded a Tea Party group.

    Welch is a 35 year-old wannabe who is so opportunistic that he became a Democrat to advance his political ambition.

    When he saw the mood of the country swinging away from Obama, he became a Republican again.

    Smith is a 60 something grandfather whose career is winding down.

    His sole motivation is to leave a strong America for his children.

    He’s a Reagan Democrat turned Republican.

    He won’t be switching back to the Democrat
    party. Will Welch?

  8. Why should we care about this? Doesn’t the country have bigger issues than whether Tom Smith was a Democrat or whether Steve Welch gave a few hundred dollars to Joe Sestak? The voters should be outraged at this nonsense and should vote for none of the above for senate next week. Just skip the spot on the ballot all together.

  9. @Julian R

    People know he was a past democrat, including state committee. They also know he was conservative, ran the Patriots and his home and sounding counties voted for him in state committee.

    ALL the candidates met with the caucuses and went through very straight forward grilling processes beforehand. This happened before the strong arming by Corbett.

    They also know Sam was a republican who wrecked the pension system. He blamed other people for rosy projections he relied on before voting for a pension increase that “won’t cost the taxpayers a dime”. Not only was he wrong, who with any fiscal sense would have believed that a fund would return 8% interest forever? He also ignored advice to not vote for it and did anyway.

    I look at the 9 point check list. Where was that before he voted for the pension increase to give himself a 50% pension increase ?

    Where was it when he voted for a pension cost of living increase the next year, the economy wasn’t doing good that year and the union lobbied for that. And then when it became obvious it was going to cost the tax payer much more than a dime he voted to gamble the pension funds solvency to in effect hide the cost from the tax payers(2012) . This brought us the 20102 pension crisis with severely decimated pension funds.

    What did he do next? Knowing that the 2012 pension crisis was inevitable, he champions property tax relief. Put on your thinking cap for just one minute.

    There would have been no need to seek property tax relief if they hadn’t tampered with the pension system in the first place.So he creates a problem then offers a solution.

    This is when Sam was a republican under a republican governor. During his last decade in the House, the deficit went wild. He left office with the PA economy in shambles.

    Both of these are fine gentlemen. Sam is running on his record as the reason to vote for him. That is his platform. None of this is personal, this is testing the claim Sam is a fiscal conservative, testing his flesh and blood votes, judging the economic impact they had and are going to have (because the hammer starts to really drop next year in taxpayer contributions) If it had not been for Act 120 in 2010(which was not a great bill and Sam voted against) San would not have been able to run for office, people would have already started to lose their homes for inability to pay the property tax to pay for failing to fund it as they should have..

    The average Pennsylvania does not know how big of deal that vote is as far as damaging our state. The legislators do. So, why hasn’t Sam explained that ? And not some excuse, but the impact of what he did that people are going to have to pay for?..
    .

  10. Dude, I like Sam just fine. In fact, I suspect Smith, Rohrer, and Welch would all be a LOT better than Casey. But of those top three, Welch has clearly run the most positive campaign. (This recent ad notwithstanding)

    That is, unless you count endlessly kvetching over endorsements that you sought yourself as positive campaigning.

  11. Smith won’t get my vote. I’m tired of deception. For me 2012 is all about getting rid of liars–not electing more of them. Smith claims to be an honest, good old farm boy. But I have several problems with his integrity. First, he has spent millions in an attempt to circulate HALF TRUTHS about Sam Rohrer. Surely Tom knows the Pay Raise vote was standard, constitutional procedure right? Surely Smith wouldn’t distort the truth for political gain when he’s trying to sell the public on his honesty. Or should we believe a man who is running for U.S. Senate doesn’t know the constitution? Would think Tom would firm up on the constitution BEFORE running for senate and certainly before launching an attack ad that makes him look like he’s either ignorant or exploiting the ignorant. What a massive integrity shortfall.

    But what bothers me even more, is that here is a man who has a massive platform, and rather than use it to be humble, and up front with the voters about who he is, he cleverly disguises himself, camouflaging a past he knows will matter to Republican voters. A majority have no idea Smith was a lifelong Democrat who only became Republican 7 months ago. A man with integrity would be upfront with voters and allow them to make an informed decision. In fact, it might have been endearing. Instead, he is duping the public. We expect this from the “career politicians” he claims he’s running against–although Sam Rohrer doesn’t deny his past. He owns it.

    Career politician has gotten a bad name because most of them are dirty and self serving. I’m having trouble with Smith acting like the career politician, and pinning the title on Sam, who has campaigned, as usual, like a gentleman.

  12. His name is raise TAXES Tom just ask the Plum Creek Township residents of Armstrong County.

  13. I thought there was a way to keep receipts and expenditures anonymous? Maybe they’ll figure that one out by 2016? Like you say: Slow.

  14. Looks like Braebender finally figured out finally how to make a $ with a SuperPAC. They’re slow, but adequate.

  15. “The only clue from its FEC filings is a $5,000 receipt and $5,000 disbursement on the same day – to Long/Nyquist Consulting in Harrisburg.”

    Clue??? More like a smoking gun.

    Long and Nyquist know only negative. It worked so well with Bob Jubelirer and Chip Brightbill, did it not?

Email:
  • Do you agree that ByteDance should be forced to divest TikTok?


    • Yes. It's a national security risk. (60%)
    • No. It's an app used by millions and poses no threat. (40%)
    • What's ByteDance? (0%)

    Total Voters: 30

    Loading ... Loading ...
Continue to Browser

PoliticsPA

To install tap and choose
Add to Home Screen