A conservative group is running its second ad bashing Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine, quickly prompting the former governor to denounce it as inherently false.
Crossroads GPS, a group co-founded by Republican strategist Karl Rove, announced Wednesday a $1.2 million ad buy targeting five key Senate races, including Virginia’s. Like the first ad that ran last year, the new spot compares Kaine’s term as Virginia governor to President Obama on budget matters.
Kaine went on a “billion dollar spending spree” as governor and turned a “billion dollar surplus into a $3.7 billion shortfall,” according to the Crossroads ad.
“The claim is completely false,” Kaine said Wednesday in a conference call. “During the time I was governor, Forbes ranked Virginia the best state to do business all four years.”
To counter, Kaine charged that Republican George Allen, his likely opponent next fall, “inherited a record surplus [when in the U.S. Senate in 2000], the biggest in the history of the United States, and when he left the deficit was the largest.”
Allen also served as governor of Virginia during the 1990s.
Kaine also knocked Allen for refusing to agree to seek a ban on outside groups — like Crossroads GPS — who are trying to influence the race without disclosing their donors.
Crossroads GPS is running similar ads in Missouri, Montana, Nevada and North Dakota. The North Dakota ad was removed by YouTube “due to a copyright claim.”
Echoing criticisms from Allen, Crossroads is honing in on Kaine’s friendship with Obama and his willingness to stick by the president even as Obama’s approval numbers wane in Virginia. Allen’s campaign has put up billboards that say, “Tim Kaine. Obama’s Senator. Not Virginia’s.”
But Kaine is striking back, defending his relationship with Obama and attacking Allen’s negative outlook on the current administration.
“Most Virginians want our president to succeed — regardless of party — because that means our country and state will succeed,” Kaine said in an email this week to supporters. “It’s time we reject this type of divisive politics. If you want a senator who’ll partner with the president to do what’s best for the nation, I’m your guy.”
You can watch the Crossroads GPS ad below.
