The Center for Public Integrity

The pro-Republican nonprofit Crossroads GPS on Wednesday announced a $3.4 million ad campaign attacking Democrats in four key Senate races.

Among them is "Sense," which claims Sen. Jon Tester of Montana was the “deciding vote” on the health care reform law. That’s not a new Republican line of attack, according to a March 2011 story in Politico, and has been used against other Democratic senators.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee claimed Tester was the 60th vote, the story points out. Tester’s office emailed a video of the Senate roll call vote, “which clearly shows Tester casting the 52nd vote,” according to the story.

On Tuesday, the conservative nonprofit Americans for Prosperity released its first ad in a $25 million campaign aimed at defeating President Barack Obama. The spot, called “President Obama: A One-Term Proposition,” will air in nine swing states: Iowa, North Carolina, Colorado, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, New Mexico and Florida.

“President Obama pledged to cut the deficit in half,” the new ad states. “But we've gone $5 trillion deeper in debt under his watch. It's time to hold Obama accountable for his promises.”

It closes with a clip of Obama saying, “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.”

However, Obama’s “one-term proposition” comment actually came in response to specific questions about the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which was signed into law by President George W. Bush. The program provided struggling banks with money and is widely crediting with stabilizing the financial sector, according to ABC News. Obama did not address the deficit at the time of his TARP comments.

In a 2009 interview, NBC’s Matt Lauer asked Obama, “At some point will you say, ‘Wait a minute, we’ve spent this amount of money. We’re not seeing the results. We’ve got to change course dramatically’?”

Today, Priorities USA Action, a pro-President Barack Obama super PAC, released “Understands.” The minute-long ad takes aim at presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, condemning his actions when he was chairman and CEO of Bain Capital and linking the private equity firm's buyout of a steel company to a woman's death from cancer.

The ad features a former employee of a Bain-owned steel mill who says his wife put off visiting a doctor when she became ill because his family lost their health insurance following the closure of the plant where he worked. When the man’s wife finally went to the hospital, he says, it was too late — she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and died 22 days later.

“I don’t think Mitt Romney realizes what he’s done to anyone,” he says. “And furthermore I do not think that Mitt Romney is concerned.”

Priorities USA Action reported spending almost $1.3 million on an anti-Romney television advertising buy in its most recent independent expenditure report to the Federal Election Commission. It is not certain whether or not the expenditure is tied directly to the ad.

Romney's campaign said "President Obama’s allies continue to use discredited and dishonest attacks in a contemptible effort to conceal the administration’s deplorable economic record," in response to the ad.

In other outside spending news:

Pro-President Barack Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action spent nearly $1.3 million this weekend on an anti-Mitt Romney ad buy, second only to the Republican National Committee, which spent $3.8 million on anti-Obama media placements.

The groups reported the expenditures late Friday afternoon. No additional information was available Monday morning.

Crossroads GPS, the conservative nonprofit, also released a string of ads targeting candidates in competitive Senate races across the country.

• “Calendar” attacks the spending record of Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. The ad says Heinrich has “given Washington more money to waste.” He is opposed by Republican Heather Wilson for the Senate seat.
• “Hiding” targets North Dakota senatorial candidate Heidi Heitkamp for her support of the Affordable Care Act. Heitkamp is running against Rep. Rick Berg, R-N.D, for an open seat.
• And “Investigation” attacks Rep. Shelley Berkley, D.-Nev., highlighting an ethics investigation into whether the congresswoman used her position to help her husband. Berkley is running against Republican incumbent Sen. Dean Heller.

The New Mexico, North Dakota and Nevada Senate races are among the most competitive in the country.

Democrats have decided who they don’t want to face in the Missouri race for U.S. Senate — Republican businessman John Brunner.

Majority PAC, a super PAC that supports Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate, spent $358,000 on an ad opposing Brunner, who is one of several candidates running for the GOP nomination, which will be decided in the Aug. 7 primary.

“Again,” which was released yesterday, challenges Brunner’s record on job creation.

“After saddling his company with over $245 million in debt, Brunner merged with another company that already had hundreds of existing jobs. In Tennessee," the narrator says. "That's not creating jobs. He's taking credit for jobs that were already there."

Brunner, who frames his campaign around his business credentials, is the leading Republican candidate and is expected to challenge Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in the fall. McCaskill has been the subject of a steady stream attack ads from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Republican super PACs.

Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., and former Republican state treasurer Sarah Steelman are considered Brunner’s biggest challengers. Majority PAC is the biggest spender in the Missouri Senate election so far, despite not having a candidate to oppose, having spent $1.1 million against Brunner and no money against the other Republican candidates.

After being the top spender in the GOP U.S. Senate primary and runoff in Texas — in which tea party-favorite Ted Cruz beat establishment favorite, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst — super PAC Club for Growth Action shifts its focus to the GOP Senate primary in Wisconsin.

The conservative super PAC released “Change” Wednesday, an ad that criticizes Wisconsin hedge fund manager Eric Hovde and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, both Republicans. Club for Growth Action supports former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann in the Republican primary.

The ad attacks Hovde for supporting the bailout and Thompson for tax hikes. Supporting Neumann, the ad says he is ranked “Wisconsin’s most conservative congressman in decades.”

Club for Growth Action has not reported the cost of the ad to the Federal Election Commission; however, it is already the second-highest outside spender in the Wisconsin race for U.S. Senate, with $748,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The winner of the GOP primary Aug. 14 will face Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin in the fall, who has the backing of Women Vote!, the Service Employees International Union and Majority PAC, a super PAC supporting Democratic candidates for Senate. It appears the groups like Baldwin’s chances against Neumann. On Wednesday, Majority PAC reported spending $492,000, part of which went to ads opposing Hovde and Thompson.

“You know,” she says, closing her laptop and shaking her head, “It seems these days, not a single one of us steps on a train, boards an airplane, attends a concert or a sporting event that doesn’t have at least a fleeting concern that terror could strike.”

It sounds like this suburban woman is speaking in the days after 9/11. And in fact, footage of the planes hitting the twin towers does flash across the screen.

But the ad, from the nonprofit Secure America Now, was released just this week. “Are We Safer Now? ”blasts President Barack Obama for undermining American security in a litany of ways, including  wanting to close Guantanamo Bay (which he didn’t), ending “enhanced interrogation techniques” and closing the CIA’s “black sites,” secretive prisons overseas outside America’s legal jurisdiction.

The ad ends with footage of burning cars, burning buildings, and then — an explosion.

Reminiscent of former National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice’s statement, “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud,” the fear-mongering ad doesn’t mention Mitt Romney, Obama’s November opponent for president. Instead, it calls on viewers to visit its “Are We Safer?” website so you can “learn the facts.”

The ad is rife with false and misleading statements. Among the most egregious:

The Sierra Club’s nonprofit has released three new ads yesterday targeting Republican congressmen who have opposed renewing a tax credit for the wind energy industry.

The Sierra Club so far has taken aim at six Republicans in its pro-wind campaign: Reps. Bob Latta of Ohio, Blake Farenthold of Texas, Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania, Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania, Frank Guinta of New Hampshire and Joe Heck of Nevada.

The TV and radio ads are all variations of the same template, calling on the congressmen to “save wind industry jobs” by voting to renew the wind production tax credit. The production tax credit gives owners of renewable energy projects an income tax reduction based on how much electrical output their projects create.

The American Wind Energy Association estimates there are currently 75,000 jobs in the wind industry, 37,000 of which would be at risk if the tax credit expires.

Its renewal has become a hot issue in some states, especially Iowa, thanks to the high number of wind industry jobs in the state. Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has come out against renewing the production tax credit whereas President Barack Obama has said he supports it.

The value of wind energy has been subjected to attacks this year by conservative groups including Americans for Prosperity and the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization of state representatives and corporations that has drafted model bills to overturn state laws supporting wind energy.

Both groups are partially funded by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers.

With GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney in Israel over the weekend, the “Emergency Committee for Israel,” a conservative political group with neoconservative ties, released a series of ads on Thursday, Friday and Sunday opposing President Barack Obama.

Among them:

• A print ad in 26 Jewish newspapers at a cost of $54,000;
• “Postcards,” which shows Obama traveling the Middle East but not stopping in Israel, and;
• “O Jerusalem,” which highlights the Obama administration’s reluctance to call Jerusalem the capital of Israel.

In addition, the Republican Jewish Coalition released “Renie” and “Bruce,” ads that include the personal stories of two Jewish voters who chose Obama in 2008 and plan to vote Republican this year.

The Emergency Committee for Israel’s website lists William Kristol as a board member. Kristol is the founder and editor of the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard and a noted neoconservative, a political movement that played a critical role in the administration of President George W. Bush.

The organization consists of three entities: a nonprofit, a political action committee and a super PAC. Through the end of June, the most recent Federal Election Commission filings available, all of the super PAC’s contributions had come from the nonprofit, which is not required to disclose its donors.

In an unprecedented ad blitz, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $5.9 million on a series of attack ads against seven Democratic candidates and one independent candidate in key Senate races, according to its disclosures to the Federal Election Commission Thursday.

These included: