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Pro-GOP super PAC AFP Action launches $10 million ad campaign against Democratic senators
A fresh round of attack ads against Democratic U.S. Senate candidates is hitting the airwaves in several competitive races, designed to raise doubts about their support for one of President Biden’s top legislative accomplishments.
AFP Action, one of the largest pro-GOP super PACs supporting congressional candidates, is launching a $10 million television and digital ad campaign against Democratic senators Jon Tester of Montana, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Rep. Elisa Slotkin of Michigan, who’s running for her state’s open U.S. Senate seat.
Tester and Brown are the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents of the cycle, while the others remain in expensive and closely watched competitive races, despite recent polling showing them pacing ahead of their Republican rivals.
Most of the ads call out the candidates for supporting the Inflation Reduction Act, a $1.2 trillion piece of legislation passed in 2022. AFP Action argues the measure costs the average American family roughly an additional $1,000 every month because the federal spending authorized by the act sparked a rise in prices that has only started to abate in recent months.
The ad targeting Casey, for example, faults him for voting for Mr. Biden’s priorities “98% of the time” and contributing to increased prices caused by inflation. It then urges viewers to support Dave McCormick, his Republican opponent.
Casey has argued the legislation is helping cut health-care related costs, noting earlier this year that “80,200 Pennsylvanians on Medicare Part B and D are paying at most $35 a month for insulin, and 346,000 Pennsylvanians are paying hundreds of dollars less for health care Marketplace premiums.”
The ad targeting Brown calls out his nearly 30 years in elected office and says his vote for the act “drove inflation higher, forcing Buckeye families to pay nearly $1,000 more per month for everyday essentials. Sherrod Brown let us down.” It buoys “first-generation American Bernie Moreno,” his GOP rival.
Brown has defended his vote for the measure, noting it’s saved his constituents money in health-care and energy costs and that the federal investment in Ohio should help spur new jobs.
“These Senators drove our economy over a cliff by voting in lockstep with the Biden-Harris administration’s far-left progressive agenda, and now they want a do-over,” said AFP Action Director Nathan Nascimento.
AFP Action is the political arm of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative organization that famously bucked former president Donald Trump last year and endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s presidential bid. But the group dropped its support for her in February and shifted its focus to congressional races. The organization says it’s engaged in more than 500 federal contests this year.
This new suite of advertising is but a small part of hundreds of millions of dollars set to be spent by various outside super PACs in support of Democratic and Republican congressional candidates, on top of the hundreds of millions already earmarked to be spent on the presidential campaign. Most of the ad time was reserved in the spring at lower rates in anticipation of a cluttered political ad market this fall.
At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
