A conservative group is spending $6 million in battleground states on a new ad critical of President Obama's role in funding the failed green energy firm Solyndra, whose bankruptcy last year despite a federal loan guarantee has proven a major embarrassment for the administration.
Americans for Prosperity — group partially funded by the billionaire Koch brothers — said that the campaign will begin airing Monday in Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, Virginia and Iowa.
"This ad is important because it puts a spotlight on how cronyism and blind ideology came together in the halls of the White House," Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, said in a statement, according to CNN.
The ad implies that Obama helped to secure the $535 million in loan guarantees to help campaign contributors.
"We all know about Solyndra," the narrator says. "The White House emails. The FBI raids. Solyndra investors raised campaign money for Obama. The government gives Solyndra half a billion in taxpayer money. Politics as usual."
The ad goes on to say that the bankruptcy cost more than 1,000 jobs and urges supporters to tell the president that "American workers aren't pawns in your political games."
This is the second substantial ad buy for the group on the Solyndra issue; in early November, Americans for Prosperity spent $2.4 million on a two-week campaign in Florida, Michigan, Virginia and New Mexico.
—This story was updated Tuesday at 11:20 a.m.
