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Rep. Sandy Adams hits Mica for highway bill as primary nears
Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.) is portraying House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) as a "cheerleader"
for President Obama in a new campaign ad in the final days of their
contentious member-versus-member primary.
The 30-second commercial shows Obama thanking Mica for his work on the $105 billion transportation bill taken from a signing ceremony at the White House last month.
Obama says Mica's "leadership made this bill a reality," and the ad then links the lawmaker to provisions in the transportation bill that allow toll lanes to be constructed on central Florida's Interstate 4.
The money for the high-speed rail project, which Mica also supported, was later rejected by Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) after his election in 2010.
The Adams campaign ad accuses Mica of "wasting money on things like SunRail."
"There's a reason he's Obama's best cheerleader," the narrator says. The ad concludes with footage of Mica saying the phrase to the president during an exchange about the high-speed rail program that was caught on film.
Mica's campaign argued that the Adams ad was hypocritical, arguing that the freshman lawmaker supported the Orlando commuter railway when she was a member of the Florida state legislature.
"Sandy Adams voted for the bill, House Bill 1A in 2009, which included SunRail approval, $55 million for Tri-Rail and approved the organization which was needed for the state to accept the high speed rail dollars," Mica campaign spokesman Alan Byrd said in an email.
The transportation committee chairman spent Friday criticizing the national passenger rail service, Amtrak, for spending too much on concessions.
In an appearance at a Washington, D.C., McDonald's, Mica cast himself as an opponent of wasteful government spending on transportation-related expenses.
-This story was originally posted on Aug. 3 at 5:01 p.m. and it was updated with new information Aug. 4 at 3:41 p.m.
