Group sinks $520,000 into TV ad attacking Ky. Dem Senate candidate for supporting ‘ObamaCare’

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Group’s ad slams Democratic Ky. Senate candidate

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A conservative political group is airing a TV ad in several Kentucky cities attacking Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jack Conway for supporting “ObamaCare.”

The ad by Washington-based Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies chides Conway, Kentucky’s attorney general, for endorsing President Barack Obama’s health care reforms and refusing to join 13 other attorneys general who oppose them.

“When Jack Conway had to choose between Obama’s agenda and defending Kentucky, he chose Obama — and our new issue ad points that out,” said Steven Law, director of the Crossroads group.

Conway faces Republican Rand Paul in the race to replace retiring Sen. Jim Bunning, the 78-year-old former major league pitcher. Paul, a tea party favorite, has been a harsh critic of the health care reforms and has called for their repeal.

Neither Conway nor Paul have begun airing their own ads yet. Conway is prepared to go up with an ad by Monday. Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton said Paul has no firm plans to begin his advertising campaign.

Crossroads is paying $520,000 to air the ad over the next two weeks in Lexington, Louisville, Paducah and Bowling Green. It superimposes photos of Conway and Obama side by side in front of a red “Wrong Way” street sign, with a narrator saying: “Tell Jack Conway: Turn around, stop defending ObamaCare, and protect Kentucky.”

Conway spokeswoman Allison Haley decried the ad, saying Paul is getting help from “a shadowy group” that is “funded with secret donations from the same establishment Republicans Paul once ran against.”

Paul defeated establishment-backed candidate Trey Grayson for the GOP nomination in May.

Crossroads is affiliated with American Crossroads, whose advisers include Republican masterminds Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie. The group has pledged to raise $50 million to help GOP candidates this year, and has already spent more than $3 million airing ads against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Democratic Senate candidates Robin Carnahan in Missouri and Michael Bennet in Colorado, and for Republican Rob Portman in Ohio.

American Crossroads is one of many independent groups, some supporting Republicans and some supporting Democrats, that are buying ads in the current election.