End Citizens United PAC’s TV ad urges Ayotte to support court vote
By John DiStaso, WMUR
End Citizens United is a year-old political action committee whose ultimate goal is to do exactly what its name says: pass a constitutional amendment to reverse the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that has led to the plethora of super PACs.
The group is weighing in on the refusal by U.S. Senate Republicans to hold hearings and confirmation vote on President Barack Obama’s expected nominee to the nation’s top court.
A new End Citizens United ad, provided exclusively to New Hampshire Primary Source, urges viewers to call U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte to “tell her to stop protecting her job and start doing it” by reversing her position and allowing the process to move forward.
The ad, which begins airing on Thursday, shows a purported television news anchor saying, “At stake: choice, immigration, even the possibility of ending the corrupting influence of money in elections.”
“Republicans are stopping the conversation, blocking any nomination,” a narrator says. “Refusing even to meet with a nominee. All for political gain.”
The group is spending $128,000 to air the ad through March 9. The spending total matches the amount spent on an ad praising Ayotte by the conservative legal group Judicial Crisis Network, reported in last week’s New Hampshire Primary Source.
End Citizens United plans to increase the buy if the Judicial Crisis Network does so.
“End Citizens United exists to fight the corrupting influence of big money in politics, a problem the Supreme Court itself compounded with its disastrous Citizens United decision,” said Reed Adamson, senior advisor to the PAC. “The best opportunity we have to reform our campaign finance system is to confirm a new justice.”
“As long as Republicans are standing in the way of confirming a new justice, anonymous corporate money will continue to flood into our elections and corrupt our democracy,” Adamson said.
A poll completed for End Citizens United earlier this week showed that 52 percent of New Hampshire voters would be less likely to vote for Ayotte because of her position on the court issue, while 37 percent would be more likely to support her.
The PAC said last summer that it hopes to raise $25 million to $30 million before Election Day in November and play roles in Senate and House races across the country. Ayotte is its first television target.
The group reported raising $6.8 million during 2015 and having nearly $3 million in cash on hand as of Dec. 31, 2015.