For the first time this election cycle, congressional Republicans have invoked Barack Obama’s name to dissuade voters from supporting a Democratic candidate.
The National Republican Congressional Committee is up with a new ad in the upcoming Louisiana special election, tying the Democratic nominee, state Rep. Don Cazayoux, to the Illinois senator.
“A vote for Don Cazayoux is a vote for Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi,” the narrator said in the ad. “Cazayoux also supports Barack Obama’s radical agenda on health care.”
Cazayoux is facing Republican former state Rep. Woody Jenkins in a hotly contested special election to succeed former Rep. Richard Baker (R-La.) in the Republican-leaning Baton Rouge district. Cazayoux’s internal polling has shown him with a small lead, but he has recently been hit with a barrage of attacks from the NRCC and the conservative group Freedom’s Watch.
Freedom’s Watch is also up with a new ad accusing both Obama and Cazayoux of supporting a “big government scheme” for health care.
Republicans clearly believe that Obama, who’s locked in a fierce battle with New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, is viewed unfavorably in more conservative parts of the country and could be a drag on Democrats seeking reelection in Republican-leaning districts. And this new ad will offer an early test of the effectiveness of that strategy.
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