Mimicking a Democratic strategy that has sought to tie Republican candidates to the wealthy conservative industrialists Charles and David Koch, a new television ad from a GOP nonprofit hits Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee for the support he has received from billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer.
Crossroads GPS, a Republican 501(c)4 affiliated with former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove, went on television in Michigan on Saturday with a one-week statewide buy worth $800,000.
In the spot, a copy of which was shared exclusively with the Washington Examiner, Crossroads GPS charges that Rep. Gary Peters, D-Mich., is carrying water for Steyer, a wealthy investor who is spending millions of dollars of his own money to support Democrats on the 2014 ballot who share his environmental agenda. It’s almost a carbon copy of Democratic ads that have attacked Republicans for putting the Koch brothers’ agenda ahead of voters’ priorities.
The ad charges Peters with opposing the Keystone XL pipeline at the behest of Steyer. Peters is running for a Democratic-held open seat against former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, a Republican. The GOP has not won a Senate race in Michigan since the 1990s.
