A new ad that begins airing Wednesday from the DSCC portrays Pat Toomey as a champion of Wall Street, not the middle class, and raises the specter of what Democrat’s say is the Republican Senate nominee’s plan to privatize Wall Street.

It’s the second ad run by the DSCC campaign and comes a day after Sestak unveiled his first spot of the general election campaign, which, like the DSCC ad, linked Toomey to Wall Street. The DSCC did not reveal the ad buy or if it would run statewide.

Sestak and Toomey have battled over the Republican’s proposal for Social Security, which he says would give younger people the option to invest in the stock market with regulated accounts. It’s a plan similar to what President George W. Bush tried unsuccessfully to do in this second term, but he denies that it amounts to “privatization,” calling the term a pejorative designed to weaken support for it.

Democrats point to an array of articles published earlier this decade that appear to show Toomey supporting Bush’s plan to change Social Security, which at that time was widely known as “privatizing” it.

A narrator in the ad says of Toomey’s plan, “It would give billions to Wall Street but put your Social Security at risk in the stock market.”

“Privatizing Social Security. Helping Wall Street,” it continues. “Pat Toomey: He’s not for you.”

By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA
roarty@politicspa.com

Club for Growth, the fiscal conservative advocacy group Pat Toomey once ran earlier this decade, is hitting the airwaves in Pennsylvania in support of its former boss with an ad that criticizes Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Joe Sestak as “very liberal.”

The 30-second spot highlights Sestak’s support of a $300 billion mortgage bailout and a so-called “cap-and-trade” bill. It also criticizes Sestak for supporting for a stimulus bill larger than the $787 billion one approved by Congress in early 2009.

“We can’t afford Joe Sestak’s liberal schemes in the Senate,” a narrator intones.

The criticism echoes the main line of attack against Sestak from the Toomey campaign, which has sought to frame the Democrat as a rubber-stamp for President Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s “extreme liberal agenda.”

The group described the ad a “substantial buy on both broadcast and cable television around the state.” If so, it would be the fourth third-party organization to run ads against Sestak, joining the Chamber of Commerce, Emergency Committee for Israel, and the Karl Rove-backed group American Crossroads. Only one third-party group, J Street, not tied directly to either party has run an ad in support of Sestak, and that was in direct response to the spot from the Emergency Committee for Israel.

The DSCC began airing ads supporting Sestak last week after Toomey’s campaign had been on the air for two months.

But the Club for Growth ad does provide an opening for Sestak and Democrats to link Toomey to his Wall Street past, which has been the focus of their campaign against him so far.

“Wall Street derivatives pioneer Pat Toomey said he stopped working on Wall Street two decades ago, but that hasn’t stopped his Wall Street buddies from rushing to bailout him out today,” said DSCC National Press Secretary Deirdre Murphy, in a statement. “Already on the defense in all corners of Pennsylvania for his deep ties to Wall Street and over his history of pushing for Social Security privatization, it’s fitting that Toomey would turn to those closest to him for a bailout.”