By: Eric Garcia
A group dedicated to limiting the use of outside money in politics has dropped $770,000 on an ad in Missouri hitting Republican Sen. Roy Blunt for his family members being lobbyists.
The commercial from End Citizens United PAC will air on broadcast and cable in St. Louis and Kansas City from Wednesday until Sept. 27.
The ad contrasts Blunt’s family ties with the record of his Democratic challenger, Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, who the ad says enlisted and deployed to Afghanistan as an intelligence officer.
Conversely, the ad points to Blunt’s votes to protect his Senate pay raise and mentions that his house in Washington cost $1.6 million. It also says that his wife and three of his children are lobbyists.
Kander, who has been endorsed by the political action committee, has raised a prodigious amount of money, reporting more than $3.7 million in cash on hand in his most recent Federal Election Commission report. In contrast, Blunt had more than $6.6 million in the bank per his most recent FEC filing.
But the Missouri Republican Party said the ad from Kander’s “liberal allies” was hypocritical.
“Jason Kander has made family lobbying a central issue in his campaign without disclosing that his wife, Diana, was a lobbyist in Kansas, Washington, D.C. and Missouri,” the party said in a statement.
The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report/Roll Call recently changed the race rating from Republican Favored to Leans Republican.