Progressive Super-PAC Priorities USA is hitting the airwaves in five states in an effort counter ad buys from Karl Rove’s anonymous-money organization, Crossroads GPS.
The ads specifically target Rove for playing “politics at its worst” and highlight the House GOP’s plan to turn Medicare into a private voucher system with stingier benefits. They’ll run in Iowa, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Colorado, all highly competitive states in 2012 that President Obama won in his first election.
The ad buy, which is $750,000, is short of Crossroads’ $5 million ad that launched this week in ten states, part of a larger $20 million effort by the group. Priorities USA decided against running the spot in additional states targeted by Rove that they felt were less likely to be battlegrounds, such as Montana and Missouri, a source with knowledge of the ad buy told TPM.
Both groups are expected to play major roles in the 2012 election, the first since the Supreme Court struck down laws restricting spending on independent campaign ads in its Citizen United verdict.
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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