https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKfSP_hSl8o
The political ads are starting to hit the airwaves.
Earlier this week, Governor Corbett released his first commercial of the general election cycle. Now, the first outside group is advocating their message in the Keystone state.
The one-minute spot was produced by NextGen Climate, a 501(c)(4) organization led by billionaire Tom Steyer. Steyer made headlines recently when he announced his campaign to raise awareness about climate change.
The ad hammers Corbett on education cuts and the issues with the budget but focuses mainly on his ties to oil and gas companies.
“Oil and gas companies gave Corbett $1.7 billion in political contributions and he gave them a sweetheart deal on taxes that’s costing Pennsylvania billions,” the ad asserts.
“Pennsylvanians are challenging Tom Corbett to come clean, release the records of your meetings with donors that you’ve been hiding. Disclose all the contributions, letters and emails from oil and gas lobbyists who influence you,” the narrator continues.
“We’ve got a right to know who Tom Corbett’s listening to, because it sure isn’t us,” the spot concludes.
Not surprisingly, the Republican Governor’s Association were not happy about the ad and chose to attack Steyer.
“These misleading attacks launched against Governor Corbett by billionaire Tom Steyer are stunningly hypocritical,” said RGA Communications Director Gail Gitcho. “For years, Steyer profited big by investing in the kind of energy projects Pennsylvania relies on for good jobs and affordable energy, but now he’s out to curry favor with the far left by bankrolling Tom Wolf’s campaign under the guise of climate change advocacy. It’s clear that Tom Steyer is a hypocritical liberal billionaire with personal political ambitions, and it’s wrong that his out-of-touch ideology could stand in the way of hard working Pennsylvanians’ ability to provide for their families.”
On NextGen’s website, Steyer writes an essay about his change of heart concerning climate change.
Since the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United, 501(c)(4) organizations which can advocate for issues and candidates without disclosing their donors have become a powerful political fixture. That is to say, expect plenty more of these ads to come.
Update: Corbett-Cawley Communications Director Chris Pack issued the following response:
“It’s no secret that millionaire Secretary Tom Wolf is bought and paid for by special interest groups. Wolf refuses to acknowledge our state’s pension crisis because he’s received $1.1 million from the public sector unions.”
“Now we are seeing that Wolf’s anti-coal policies, such as his cap-and-tax proposal that would jeopardize over 62,000 Pennsylvania jobs, has resulted in him benefitting through millions of dollars in attack ads against Governor Tom Corbett from San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer.”
“Tom Steyer is a hypocrite who made his fortune by investing in the coal industry who is now waging a war on coal because it will benefit him financially. It’s similar to how Wolf, who made his millions outsourcing jobs to other states and moving his company to Delaware is now pretending to be pro-Pennsylvania — because it benefits Wolf.”
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7 Responses
You are right on: Democrat liberal billionaire Tom Steyer sinking tons of money into Pennsylvania political races. Newsflash! He’s anti-jobs, andti-Republican, and pro-Obama. I’m not sure he stands for much else
This political ad is indicative of the politics today. The maker took an ounce maybe an ounce of truth then made wild accusations to scare and “move” voters. I sure hope that as a citizenry, we begin to require more from people running for office or influencing politics to sway or gain our votes. To me, this AD its outright disgusting.
Who the he’ll does tom corbett think he is smearing tom wolf with all these fabricated lies about him and daring to put them out over the television airwaves? The facts speak for themselves cuts in education funds, funding the huge ripoff oil companies, food prices being raised and of course the huge bankrupc that Harrisburg is currently facing.Mr.Corbett is a lazy good for nothing who cares more about a child molester in state pen and about the institution he once worked for Penn State than he cares about the state of Pennsylvania and it’s people.Come on Tom Wolf get this brainless lower out of our state so Pa. Can get a fresh start.
Ads are financed by Dem Billionaire who made his money investing in energy. He got his; last one in lock the door behind you.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/big_tent/Dem-billionaires-ads-attack-Corbett-as-oil-and-gas-tool.html
This is a good test to determine if PA voters be exploited by out right lies or will this ad backfire?
A Tale of Two Resume’s
Tom Wolf.
Education
Bachelor’s degree, Dartmouth College, 1972
Master’s degree, University of London, 1978
PhD, political science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1981
25 years as a chief executive.
Adept at building relationships.
Established track record of developing and enhancing sales and manufacturing-driven revenue streams.
Locally celebrated job creator.
Pays living wages and shares profits.
Tom Corbett.
Education: Lebanon Valley College, St. Mary’s University School of Law
3 1/2 years as a chief executive.
Historic low approval ratings in every poll since early 2012 (essentially everybody hates him, including legislative leaders of his own party.)
Crippled state cash flow (started with a $1 billion surplus, now $1.5 billion in the hole. State auditor general says this budget will not last 6 months.).
Lost 45,000 state jobs (says he “created” 178,000 private sector jobs, although most are low-pay retail with no benefits and people with two part-time jobs are counted twice, meanwhile Pennsylvania dropped from 7th to 49th in job creation.)
Never made a payroll in his life where the cash flow was not the captive taxpayer.
In other news, the co-founder of Greenpeace recently acknowledged that the Earth hasn’t warmed in 18 years and lamented that the public’s scientific literacy leaves them I’ll equipped to know that what they’re told about carbon pollution is crap.
http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/07/09/greenpeace-co-founder-dr-patrick-moore-i-fear-a-global-cooling-rips-obama-for-hollow-climate-claims/