The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has reserved at least $650,000 worth of TV air time for Denny Heck campaign commercials over the next eight weeks, the committee’s chairman confirmed Wednesday.
U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who chairs the DCCC and also serves as assistant House speaker, stopped off in Vancouver during a visit to the Northwest to promote Democratic candidates for Congress. He said the party is committed to spending “tens of millions of dollars” nationwide and to helping Heck defeat Republican Jaime Herrera in the race for the open 3rd Congressional District seat.
“We see it as a competitive campaign that’s representative of races we see around the country,” Van Hollen said. “We believe Denny is a terrific candidate. In terms of doing everything we can to support his operation, we’ve reserved some TV time for him.”
Van Hollen said it’s important that voters understand who is paying for the political ads they see on TV this election season.
For example, he said, the conservative organization Americans for Prosperity, which recently bought $180,000 worth of TV ads supporting Herrera, is backed by Koch Industries, one of the nation’s largest and wealthiest companies, whose owners have benefited greatly from what he called “these perverse tax breaks” that reward companies for shipping American jobs overseas.
Voters need to ask candidates if they agree with the political agendas of organizations that spend money independently on behalf of their campaigns, Van Hollen said.
The DCCC operates under strict disclosure rules, he said, but with ads bankrolled by independent expenditures, “It’s voters beware, TV viewers beware.”
With less than two months to go before the midterm elections, and many pundits predicting a Republican takeover of the U.S. House, Van Hollen said President Barack Obama is doing what he needs to do by speaking out on the critical choice voters face in this election.
“It’s a choice between continuing to move the economy forward and returning to the same economic policies that drove the economy into the ditch,” he said.
Voters should be alarmed by the GOP economic agenda as recently articulated by U.S. Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, Van Hollen said.
That agenda, he said, includes canceling 60,000 contracts paid for under the federal stimulus bill, protecting tax subsidies for companies that export jobs, opposing a bill to make it easier for small businesses to borrow money, and repealing Wall Street reform.
In fact, Van Hollen called Wall Street reform a “defining issue” of this election.
“The Wall Street lobbyists spent a lot of money trying to defeat Wall Street reform,” he said. “Part of the Republican plan is to allow Wall Street to run the show again and repeal the accountability and transparency reforms. People need to remember that the reckless decisions on Wall Street wreaked havoc on Main Street. Why would we want to reward that behavior?”
Heck too has often denounced Wall Street investors for their role in the economic meltdown that cost millions of families their retirement and other savings.
After a speech at the Vancouver Rotary Club Wednesday, he was asked how he proposes to get the economy moving without increasing the federal deficit.
“If we don’t get the deficit under control it will destroy our economy,” he agreed. But he added that in the 3rd District, one of the most direct ways the federal government can boost the economy is to move forward with funding for a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River. That will reap benefits both in the short term, by adding up to 20,000 jobs during construction, and in the long term, by moving goods more efficiently and boosting commerce, he said.
Heck also made a pitch for incentives to promote new clean energy technology in the Northwest as a powerful job-creation strategy. And though he stopped short of endorsing a cap-and-trade bill, he said in response to a question, “The science is in. Climate change is real. I am someone who believes doing nothing is not an option.”
Asked his opinion of President Obama’s new proposal for a $50 billion transportation infrastructure bill to stimulate job creation, Heck said, “I agree in principle with investing in infrastructure.”
Herrera, in contrast, has promoted tax cuts to stimulate the economy while opposing Democratic proposals to stimulate the economy by increasing the federal deficit.
Kathie Durbin: 360-735-4523 or kathie.durbin@columbian.com.
