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No mention of highway bill in new Mica campaign ad
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) does not mention the recently approved $105-billion transportation bill in a new campaign ad touting his achievements.
Mica is locked in a contentious primary with fellow House member Sandy Adams (R-Fla.) after redistricting left the two battling for the same seat. Adams has often attacked Mica for his role in the passage of the transportation bill, including a recent criticism of his attendance at a White House ceremony for President Obama's signing of the bill.
In a new 30-second ad released by his campaign this week, Mica mentions healthcare, Medicare and taxes, but not the transportation bill.
"John Mica will fight to repeal ObamaCare," the ad says. "He'll restore Medicare, give seniors quality care again. John will protect military families and end Obama's war against Tricare. He'll fight the new taxes created by ObamaCare and the billions more Obama has planned for the middle class."
"We cannot afford the Mica-Boxer-Obama budget-busting transportation bill because our nation is heading toward the fiscal cliff, and we have to rein in our spending," Adams said in an email to supporters last week about the transportation bill. "I am committed to standing strong for fiscal responsibility, and getting our country back on a path to economic prosperity.”
Mica's campaign has accused Adams of "playing politics" with the transportation bill, which he has called "the most important transportation reform bill since Eisenhower."
But moments after Obama's signing of the bill at the White House last Friday, Mica accused the president of being "AWOL" on transportation issues in a scathing press release.
"I’m disappointed that the only part the president and his administration played in passage of this important transportation legislation has been [Friday’s] elaborate bill signing ceremony," Mica said in a statement released minutes after he was standing next to Obama.
"[Friday’s] White House showcase ceremony is small consolation to thousands of projects and workers that were then left behind, because reforms that would have truly helped make projects ‘shovel-ready’ were not put in place until today’s enactment of those necessary reforms," he said.
Mica and Adams will likely continue jockeying over framing the transportation bill until they face off in Florida's primary election Aug. 14.
