A political action committee with close ties to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has launched its first attack ad against Lt. Gov. John Fetterman as Dr. Mehmet Oz, his Republican rival in Pennsylvania’s Senate race, suffers in the polls.
The ad, released by the Senate Leadership Fund, is part of a $34 million spending blitz in Pennsylvania by the group and accuses Fetterman of having a lenient record on crime.
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“Violent crime surging. John Fetterman’s answer? Let criminals out of prison,” the narrator of the 30-second ad says. “As head of the board of pardons, Fetterman’s trying to get as many criminals out of prison as he can.”
The commercial also claims the Democrat supports sanctuary cities and ending “life sentences for felony murder,” concluding that “Fetterman is just too far-left.”
One of Oz’s talking points has been that he will be tough on crime, and his campaign has run ads waging the same attacks on Fetterman, whose campaign has denied the allegations.
“This ad from Mitch McConnell’s super PAC is full of lies and mischaracterizations about John Fetterman,” the Democrat’s spokesman Joe Calvello told the Washington Examiner. “Unlike Mehmet Oz, John has actually taken on crime. As mayor of Braddock and chief law enforcement officer, he worked with the police force to stop crime, and under John’s leadership, Braddock went five-and-a-half years without a gun death. John not only has worked hand-in-hand with the police, but he knows what challenges our police force face and how to support them.”
As lieutenant governor, Fetterman opposed mandatory minimum sentencing for second-degree murder, arguing that a one-size-fits-all approach disproportionately punishes people who have not personally taken a life but may have been involved in the circumstances that led to someone dying. He has also distanced himself from calls to defund the police while supporting deescalation as the best tactic for law enforcement officers when they engage with potentially dangerous people.
Oz has been trailing in the polls by an average of 11.5 percentage points, leading the Cook Political Report to change the race’s rating from a “toss-up” to “lean Democrat” this week.
Seeing Oz falling behind, the Senate Leadership Fund announced last week that it would up its $24.6 million in pledged spending by another $9.5 million in Pennsylvania, and the group moved forward the start of its campaign by three weeks.
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Republicans need to net one seat in the evenly divided Senate to reclaim a majority next year, with the contest in Pennsylvania being crucial to that effort. McConnell recently admitted that it’s possible Republicans will fall short in the Senate races despite the hoped-for “red wave” due to a lack of strong candidates.
Democrats had significantly more cash on hand nationally heading into the third quarter of 2022.
