Young-adult group hits Landrieu in new ad: ‘We can’t afford that!’

Generation Opportunity, a nonprofit advocacy group with ties to billionaire donors Charles and David Koch that’s geared toward young adults, is attacking Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) on economic issues in its second ad this cycle.

{mosads}The ad, shared first with The Hill, shows a young woman pushing a Landrieu look-a-like around a grocery store in a shopping cart. The politician greedily grabs items off the shelves, munching cookies and hoarding goods as the young woman admonishes, “I told you, we can’t afford that!”

“Washington politicians, like Sen. Mary Landrieu, have a spending problem. They’re wasting money they don’t have, and sticking our generation with the bill,” a narrator says in the ad.

When a cashier finally rings up all of the groceries, the sum comes out to $800,000 — an 18-year-old’s share of the national debt, per a Budget Committee analysis — and the Landrieu stand-in dismisses it: “She’s got it.”

“No,” the young woman says, “pay for it yourself.”

The narrator then urges viewers to “tell Mary Landrieu that’s our money — stop wasting it.”

The ad is backed by a $450,000 TV buy and at least $100,000 online.

It’s the same message as the group’s first ad this cycle, hitting Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) on government spending and the national debt.

Both are considered two of Democrats’ most vulnerable incumbents, and seen as necessary to the GOP’s efforts to pick up the six seats the party needs to regain the majority.

Landrieu’s team hit back against the ad, with campaign manager Adam Sullivan noting that Landrieu’s main GOP opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy, has also voted to raise the debt limit before.

Sullivan calls the ad “yet another lame attempt by the Koch brothers and their anonymous billionaire allies to distract” from Landrieu’s work for the state, and points in particular to her support for a Democratic-backed bill to reform student loans that failed in the Senate last week due to Republican opposition.

“However, unlike Congressman Cassidy or [GOP challenger] Rob Maness, Mary Landrieu is the only one in this race that has put forward a plan to increase college affordability with her Passport to the Middle Class. It’s been nearly 10 days since Senator Landrieu asked the Louisiana delegation to sign on to the legislation, and, subsequently, nearly 10 days of silence by Congressman Cassidy,” he said in a statement.

“Louisiana families are beginning to realize that you can’t trust Congressman Cassidy or his Koch-backed anti-Louisiana agenda.”

—This piece was updated at 5:30 to clarify Generation Opportunity’s nonpartisan affiliation.