NRCC out with three new ads in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin

By Alexandra Jaffe - 09/04/12 10:50 AM ET

The National Republican Campaign Committee is out on Tuesday with three new ads attacking Democrats in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In Kentucky, the group's ad slams Rep. Ben Chandler for backing Obama's policies, and it highlights Democrats' cap-and-trade energy policy, which would put a cap on the amount of pollutants companies can emit and allow them to buy and trade credits to emit more. The policy remains controversial in Kentucky, where much of the state's energy comes from coal.

Republicans are hoping the potency of the energy issue in Kentucky will help push Barr to a win in this rematch of the 2010 match-up, which he lost by just hundreds of votes.

The NRCC targets Rep. Mark Critz's votes in favor of the president's healthcare reform law in its Pennsylvania ad. The spot characterizes the law as a "tax on small businesses" and a $700 billion cut to Medicare, and says it "could kill thousands of Pennsylvania jobs."

According to a poll commissioned by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee out earlier this month, Critz is running with a double-digit lead on challenger Keith Rothfus with 50 percent support. But the district leans Republican, and the same Democratic poll gave Mitt Romney a 9-percentage-point lead on President Obama, so Critz isn't out of the woods just yet — and the NRCC's efforts to tie the candidate to Obama could pull the Critz down if Obama continues to flounder there.

In Wisconsin, the NRCC accuses Democrat Pat Kreitlow of "drown[ing] Wisconsin families in an endless cycle of fees by increasing taxes at every opportunity," according to a press release. The ad cites what it characterizes as Kreitlow's votes to allow an increase in property taxes, to raise taxes on hospitals and to increase car registration fees.

The Republican ad comes out just a few days after one released in the same district from the NRCC's Democratic counterpart, which slams freshman Rep. Sean Duffy as being out of touch with average Americans. Though the district leans Republican, it broke for Obama in 2008 by a considerable margin, and Kreitlow has been named as one of the NRCC's Red to Blue candidates, indicating the party apparatus thinks this is a race it can win.