The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is set to release a new ad hitting former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) as a Washington crony who cashed in on his Medicare connections.
"Tommy Thompson was the 'point man' for a plan that prohibits negotiating lower drug prices," the ad's narrator says. "Thompson's plan gave billions in taxpayer handouts to the drug companies. Thompson went on to make millions, working at a lobbying firm for those same drug companies. Now Thompson supports privatizing Medicare, leading to billions in profits for the insurance companies. Tommy Thompson's just not for us."
Democrats have pounded Thompson for his time working for a number of healthcare companies in Washington, D.C., following his tenure as Health and Human Services secretary, but this is the first time they've sought in an ad to accuse him of working to protect those companies while he was in President George W. Bush's Cabinet. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who is running against Thompson for the open Senate seat, has been making an issue out of it on
the campaign trail.
Thompson started out in the lead in this race, but Baldwin and Democratic outside groups have been able to flatten him on the airwaves, and she holds narrow leads in recent public polls.
