The Republican super PAC aligned with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is launching a campaign to oust Rep. Tom Malinowski that is unique in that it has an open-ended budget and indefinite timeline.
The Congressional Leadership Fund on Monday unveiled a digital advertising campaign and accompanying website targeting Malinowski that claim the New Jersey Democrat profited from the coronavirus pandemic through legal though unseemly stock trades. The super PAC charges that Malinowski shorted the stock of New Jersey companies, damaging their financial viability to pad his personal bank account.
“With businesses shutting down and families losing their loved ones, records show Tom Malinowski wasn’t looking out for Jersey, he was looking out for himself,” Congressional Leadership Fund spokesman Calvin Moore said in a statement.
The super PAC’s new spot is slated to run for several months on digital and search ad platforms, with plans to expand the effort to defeat Malinowski leading up to Election Day 2022. The Democrat represents the suburban 7th Congressional District, situated west of New York City. President Joe Biden handily defeated former President Donald Trump in the district in 2020, but it was competitive in the two preceding presidential elections.
OHIO’S MIKE DEWINE VULNERABLE IN PRIMARY BUT REPUBLICANS DOUBT CHALLENGER
It’s unclear what impact redistricting might have on Malinowski’s fortunes. But the Congressional Leadership Fund is investing early to retire the second-term congressman.
“Tom Malinowski railed against pandemic profiteering. But behind closed doors, Malinowski was caught cashing in,” the super PAC’s digital spot argues, citing Associated Press reporting from late May.
The congressman told the Associated Press that his stockbroker handles all of his trades and does not consult with him in advance.
“At no point in the last 25 years have I directed, suggested, or even asked questions about a particular trade being made by my brokerage firm,” he said, with the exception of telling his broker to sell a particular stock as a condition of joining the State Department in 2014.
