Republicans are launching a new nonprofit group to highlight the legislative successes of its vulnerable incumbents with a $2 million advertising blitz touting the work of five vulnerable GOP senators to protect Medicare.
One Nation, a new 501(c)4 linked to the Karl-Rove-backed American Crossroads super PAC, is spending more than $1.9 million on print, radio and digital ads highlighting the efforts of Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey to pass the “doc fix” legislation that realigned payments to Medicare providers with inflation.
The group is headed by Steven Law, the former Mitch McConnell chief of staff who also serves as American Crossroads’ president.
It looks to be a likely vessel for the GOP’s messaging on policy issues this cycle, as the party faces a difficult political climate with a tough Senate map to defend. All of the incumbents featured in the group’s initial ad blitz except for Burr are running in states that Obama won in 2012 and remain top Democratic targets.
According to spokesman Ian Prior, who fills the same role for American Crossroads, the group “will be a platform that will focus on communicating the legislative accomplishments of this new, Republican-led Congress, as well as advocating for legislative issues and solutions currently being debated in Congress.”
Its website features a cinematic launch video that splices together clips of presidents from both parties speaking about the American Dream, all under the theme of the U.S. motto, “E Pluribus Unum” — “Out of many, one.”
The video’s on-screen text hints at the issues that the group will focus on: the “freedom to grow…freedom to innovate…a strong national defense…secure borders and immigration that works.”
According to the website, the group aims to help “solve America’s great problems and seize America’s greater opportunities through persuasion, research and advocacy.”
As a nonprofit, the group must primarily advocate on policy issues rather than engage in political activity. But 501(c)4 nonprofits can raise huge amounts of money, without having to disclose their donors, and they’ve been used by both parties to implicitly protect or attack targeted lawmakers by highlighting their work on a specific issue in Congress.
The ads it’s launching Tuesday are one such example of that tactic. They indicate that the group will seek to paint vulnerable Republican senators as part of the solution to the gridlock that’s ground legislative action on Capitol Hill to a halt for the better part of the last decade.
The digital ads open over a shot of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, while a narrator declares: “For years, it paralyzed Washington: Partisan political dysfunction.”
“But today, there’s hope,” the ads continue, touting news reports about bipartisan legislative accomplishments. Each web ad, backing Burr, Ayotte, Toomey and Portman, say that the senator is “helping, voting to pass bipartisan legislation to protect Medicare, making it more sustainable and rewarding good doctors.”
“Bipartisanship has broken out — but there’s more to do,” the ads warn, and urge viewers to call their senators and urge them to “keep working across party lines to preserve Medicare.”
One Nation is spending $125,000 on digital ads in Illinois, $540,000 on print, radio and digital ads in North Carolina, $325,000 on print, radio and digital ads in New Hampshire, $525,000 on radio and digital ads in Ohio and $400,000 on radio and digital ads in Pennsylvania, as well as another $45,000 on a print ad in D.C.