CLF, AAN launch closing pitches in 6 races

By Alexandra Jaffe - 10/30/12 09:55 AM ET

The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) and its affiliated nonprofit American Action Network are launching their final pitches in six races, targeting five challengers and one incumbent with a smattering of ads in the final week before the election.

CLF is launching its first and only ads against challengers Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona's 9th district, Brad Schneider in Illinois's 10th district and Gary McDowell in Michigan's 1st district, as well as Rep. John Barrow in Georgia's 12th district, and is running its final pitch against Pete Gallego in Texas's 23rd district. AAN is targeting Democrat Val Demings, running in Florida's 10th district, with its final ad in that campaign.

The ads largely focus on the economic policies of each candidate, tying some to President Obama — like in the ad against McDowell, which charges that the "30-year politician" backed Obama's stimulus, which "created jobs in China"; or against Barrow, which uses audio from Obama's endorsement of the lawmaker in 2008.

Against Schneider and Gallego, the ads charge that they support higher taxes, with the ad against Gallego stating that he's backed by Democratic environmentalist groups that want to kill jobs in the energy industry in Texas. The ad running against Demings attacks her for supporting "the government intrusion into your healthcare."

Unique among them is the ad running against Sinema, which highlights a controversial statement she made about stay-at-home mothers "leeching off their boyfriends or husbands," and calls a defense of that lifestyle "bulls--t — I mean, what the f--k are we really talking about here?"

The statement is one of a number of Sinema's comments Republicans have used to paint her as extreme, and the ad charges that she's "an embarrassment."

CLF is spending $625,000 to run the ad against Sinema, $925,000 against Schneider, $200,000 against McDowell, $200,000 against Barrow, and the ad running against Gallego is part of a $1.145 million campaign. The ad running against Demings is part of a $1.2 million campaign.