GOP group pays for anti-Grant ad

BOISE – A national Republican group already has spent more than $140,000 to air a television attack ad starting this week in Idaho against Democrat Larry Grant, who’s seeking the 1st District congressional seat.

Grant, a former Micron Technology vice president, is running against Republican state Rep. Bill Sali, who also benefited in the primary from independent attack ads against two of his GOP opponents.

“Obviously the campaign doesn’t have a role in deciding who does an independent expenditure and how much they spend and what they’re like,” said Wayne Hoffman, a spokesman for the Sali campaign.

Don Rosebrock, spokesman for the Grant campaign, termed the move by the National Republican Congressional Committee a “desperation measure.”

He noted that the NRCC paid for a poll in Idaho’s 1st District race a few weeks back, then immediately started developing the TV commercial, launched an automated phone call campaign against Grant and flew in Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman to speak at a hastily arranged Boise rally for Sali.

“It all just points to the conclusion that they are extraordinarily worried,” Rosebrock said. “If this was a safe district, why would they do that?”

NRCC spokesman Jonathan Collegio said the Idaho race isn’t among the NRCC’s top 50 priority races, but the group is spending $50 million nationwide to try to keep Republican House seats in Republican hands. Idaho’s 1st District seat is now held by Republican Butch Otter, who’s giving it up to run for governor.

Collegio said the new TV ad started running Tuesday, but declined to say where it’s running initially. “Where the ad is running is a matter of strategy that we don’t discuss in any congressional district,” he said.

However, it’s already on the air in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene television market.

The NRCC reported to the Federal Election Commission that it spent $16,275 for polling to benefit Sali on Sept. 27, followed by $7,585 to produce an issue-oriented ad against Grant on Oct. 3, and an additional $10,569 on polling on Oct. 4.

Then the Republican group spent $18,202 on phone banks for what Collegio called “robocalls” against Grant, from Oct. 13 through Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, the NRCC reported spending $135,442 for “issue ad placement” against Grant.

“We have an ad up right now showing voters that Larry Grant, in his own words, wants to raise taxes,” Collegio said Wednesday.

The commercial, for which Collegio released a script, features a snippet of Grant’s voice from a radio interview talking about the Bush tax cuts, saying, “it really doesn’t make sense to extend them.” The ad, after touting the benefits of the tax cuts, says of Grant, “He doesn’t make any sense.”

Neither the Grant campaign nor the Sali campaign had seen the new ad Wednesday afternoon. But Rosebrock said Grant is against making the Bush tax cuts permanent. “His position is they have benefited the economy as best they’re going to, and now it’s time to let them lapse,” he said. “Never in our history have we fought a war and cut taxes. You can’t do that. You’ve got to pay for that. With the deficit we’re running up, how in the world does Bill Sali think he’s going to pay for all of this?”

Hoffman said, “Voters need to know where Larry Grant stands on raising taxes. He is unapologetic about the fact that he supports raising taxes on every single Idahoan.”

According to a Heritage Foundation article that Collegio cited as documentation for the commercial’s claims, the first of the Bush tax cuts to expire would be those on dividends and capital gains, which are scheduled to end in 2009.