Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Joe Sestak’s first TV ad criticizes GOP opponent Pat Toomey as “Wall Street’s Congressman,” saying the former Lehigh Valley congressman wants to ease the burden on large corporations while the middle class struggles.
It’s a familiar line of attack from Sestak, who has spent his entire general election tying Toomey to Wall Street, where he once worked. The ad buy is reportedly worth $110,000, according to the Inquirer, and will play in most markets across the state except the largest, in Philadelphia.
Toomey has been on air since July 6 and has also received third-party buys from, among other groups, the Club for Growth and the Chamber of Commerce. The DSCC went on air on Sestak’s behalf about 10 days ago.
Sestak’s 30-second spot highlights a video clip of Toomey on CNBC advocating that congress eliminate corporate taxes entirely. Pulling a page from the campaign’s famous ad against Specter, which showed the senator admitting that “his change in party will allow me to get re-elected,” the ad repeats Toomey’s suggestion that corporate taxes be eliminated.
“The solution is to eliminate corporate taxes all together,” he said.
The ad frames the Republican as an ally of Wall Street, not the middle class.
“The middle class is struggling, but Toomey thinks it’s oil companies and Wall Street banks who should pay no taxes — zero,” a narrator says.
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Update, 3:15 p.m.:
A spokeswoman for Toomey said Sestak’s negative attack is indicative of the fact he has nothing positive to say about his own candidacy while criticizing the Democrat for taking Toomey’s comment out of context.
“In the 2007 video, Pat was merely trying to explain that consumers ultimately pay for taxes on businesses through higher prices,” said spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik. “Pat agrees with President Obama’s own expert tax panel which proposed cutting the tax on businesses to make U.S. companies more competitive. Pat understands that a zero tax rate on businesses is impractical for a host of reasons, and that’s why he has consistently argued for lowering taxes on businesses to create jobs, and that’s a major difference between Pat and Joe Sestak.
“Pat believes jobs comes from cutting taxes and reducing deficits and Sestak believes jobs come from more Washington spending and a failed stimulus bill,” she said.