Union targets Boehner, McConnell over stalled highway bill

By Kevin Bogardus - 03/06/12 12:27 PM ET

A union for construction workers is launching an ad campaign targeting House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over the stalled highway bill.

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) will air radio ads in Ohio and Kentucky, paired with direct mail in both states, that highlight crumbling bridges to make the case for a new multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill.

Terry O’Sullivan, LIUNA’s president, said lawmakers need to act to fix the country’s deteriorating infrastructure because it is putting people’s safety at risk.

“With this campaign, we’re letting Congress know that while they’re busy playing politics, Americans are being forced to risk their safety every time they cross a deficient or obsolete bridge,” O’Sullivan said in a statement. “Congress, in an election year, should be fearful of failing to act. At best, these aging bridges contribute to [a] deteriorating lifestyle for Americans and are crippling our country’s ability to compete.”

O’Sullivan said the campaign will be “jarring, hard-hitting and provocative.”

The radio ads will feature children singing “America’s bridges falling down” to the tune of “London Bridge Is Falling Down.” The direct mail will be titled “How to Survive a Collapsed Bridge” and tell voters about nearby structurally deficient bridges, along with information from the U.S. Army’s survival guide about bridge collapses. The mailers will urge voters to contact Boehner and McConnell.

The union will also have a flatbed truck drive through Kentucky and Ohio, carrying a giant roll of duct tape with a sign reading “Emergency Bridge Repair Team.”

The radio ads went on the air Tuesday in Kentucky and will go live in Ohio on Wednesday. The ads are expected to run in both states for four weeks, right up to the March 31 deadline for the latest highway bill extension, according to a LIUNA spokesman.

The spokesman also said 100,000 direct mail pieces for the campaign could go out as early as late this week, targeting registered voters age 30 and older who have donated to political candidates. Half of that direct mail will go to Kentucky, while the other half will go to Ohio.

The Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to move forward with its transportation bill after procedural roadblocks stalled it for several weeks.