Democrats are attacking Republican candidate Linda McMahon on Medicare in the race for Senate in Connecticut, with a new ad launched on Thursday.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ad features seniors expressing concern over McMahon's position on the program. The ad uses McMahon's previous comments -- that she would include a "sunset" provision in legislation like Social Security -- to characterize her as being in favor of letting the program phase out, and it says that she would end the Medicare guarantee.
"Linda McMahon is just not for us," one woman says in the ad.
The claim that McMahon is in favor of a sunset provision for Social Security is based on comments she made at a Tea Party forum, during which she said "I believe in sunset provisions when we pass this kind of legislation."
From her actual remarks at the forum, however, it's unclear whether McMahon meant an expiration provision when she used the term "sunset." Though that's the commonly understood meaning of the term, the full quote indicates McMahon may have been using it differently, and she wasn't speaking about phasing out Social Security, but rather including a sunset provision in legislation like Social Security.
But Democrats have used this attack in their Connecticut ads before -- this new one is similar to an ad launched by the DSCC in September, and one from Democratic super-PAC Majority PAC last week. A Hartford Courant fact check rated the ad "false."
But the persistence of the attack indicates Democrats think it's a winning one in Connecticut, where McMahon and Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) are running neck and neck for the seat.
--This post was published at 9 a.m. and updated at 12:46 p.m.
