Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is the “poster child” for the importance of term limits, according to a new attack ad.
Conservative super PAC Missouri Rising Action is launching a digital ad on Thursday that charts McCaskill’s political career from 1982 until today, even invoking the St. Louis Cardinals’ World Series win that year to prove a point about her decades of time in office. “1982, the Cardinals won the World Series, Reagan was in the White House, and Claire McCaskill first sought political office,” a narrator says, as old pictures of McCaskill flash across the screen. “Thirty-six years later, McCaskill is still running. And now, McCaskill is one of the richest senators, and she is still voting with Washington liberals and the Hollywood elite.”
“Decades of liberal votes, years of self-enrichment. Washington needs term limits, and Claire McCaskill is the poster child. In 2018, its time to term limit career politician Claire McCaskill,” the 30-second spot ends.
[Also read: Club for Growth targets Claire McCaskill with hard-hitting ad about husband’s past]
The ad ticks off just about every vulnerability Republicans have zeroed in on when it comes to McCaskill: her personal wealth, her long political career, and her ties to elites in Washington and Hollywood. All that’s missing is a reference to her recurring private plane problem.
Polls show McCaskill is running neck-and-neck with her Republican opponent, state Attorney General Josh Hawley. The Real Clear Politics average currently shows Hawley up by less than one percentage point.
As a concept, term limits are popular with voters. Asked in a January McLaughlin & Associates poll whether they “approve or disapprove of a Constitutional Amendment that will place term limits on members of Congress,” 82 percent of likely general election voters approved. Only 9 percent disapproved.
Of course, McCaskill believes all that experience gives her an advantage as a lawmaker, and in a time less dominated by anti-establishment sentiments, that argument may be easier to make. But that’s not the environment in which she’s running. In a state that voted for President Trump by nearly 20 points, McCaskill’s long political career is a vulnerability.
