Here comes the money – into the Nevada District 4 Congressional race:
“Crossroads GPS, a conservative group, said Tuesday it has bought $820,000 worth of TV time for ads to start airing today and run through Election Day on Nov. 4. A source familiar with the ad buy said it is aimed at Horsford, who represents the 4th Congressional District.
Paul Lindsay, communications director for Crossroads GPS, confirmed the group’s eleventh-hour spending plans for the campaign, which could be a game-changer, but offered no details.
“We have placed a buy in the Las Vegas media market and have an important message to communicate,” Lindsay said.” [LVRJ]
And what might the “important message” be? It’s that Representative Horsford is in the same political party as the President of the United States. Horsford, the ads explain, supports the Affordable Care Act. Yes, that’s the law which restrains some of the more egregious practices of health insurance corporations, requires that comprehensive insurance cover flu vaccinations, and autism screening, and makes shopping for private health care plans more convenient. Then there’s the almost an outright lie.
“The Affordable Care Act cut Medicare.” This prevarication has been one of the pillars of Republican opposition to the Affordable Care Act. Those “cuts” actually: (1) Close the do-nut hole in Medicare Part D prescription coverage until the ‘hole’ is eliminated in 2020; (2) Expands existing coverage for senior citizens; (3) Supports initiatives to support care coordination; (4) Does not reduce benefits from Medicare Advantage (the private option to Medicare); (5) Reduces payments to Medicare Advantage rewarding those providers who improve the quality of their coverage, bringing payouts in line with other areas of Medicare; (6) Helps protect the Medicare trust fund. [OFacts]
The “cuts” were made to over-payments to Medicare Advantage providers which were higher than payments made to Medicare providers – in essence supplying the private Medicare option with a public corporate subsidy. “Your” Medicare (Advantage) benefits weren’t cut! What was cut were unjustifiable taxpayer subsidies to private health insurance corporations. And, maybe we should be reminded that those same “cuts” about which Rove’s Dark Money ads are caterwauling, are the same “cuts” which appear in Representative Paul Ryan’s budget plans?
Someone doesn’t like “cuts” made to the public funds available to private health care insurance corporations. Who might that be? We’ll not know because Crossroads is a Dark Money 501 (c) 4 which doesn’t have to reveal the names of its donors. [IBT] There’s nothing grass-roots about Rove’s organization which takes advantage of the decision in Citizens United to cover the tracks of mega-donors.
“The large donations may renew questions from Sunlight and others about whether Crossroads GPS should be able to file as a nonprofit “social welfare” group under the tax code, allowing it to avoid disclosing donor names. According to IRS regulations, the group’s “primary purpose” cannot be influencing elections, but the group can spend up to half of its money on political campaigning.” [WaPo] (emphasis added)
This goes toward explaining why the GOP was so anxious to attack the IRS for “politicizing” 501 (c) organization decisions? There are legitimate questions about the “social welfare” activities of organizations like Crossroads GPS, and someone didn’t want those questions answered.
Republicans may see an opening in Nevada District 4 and are willing to unleash the Dark Side Money into the breach. We can hope that the constituent services, and the person campaign style of incumbent Representative Stephen Horsford can overcome the money accreting to the Tea Party Radical campaign of challenger Cresent “Segregation” Hardy. [NVProg]
Early voting has started, and the GOP base is out in force – as usual – Every. Vote. Counts. GOTV.
Desert Beacon 