House GOP targets eight Dems

House Republicans are launching eight independent-expenditure ads on Tuesday in tight races.

The National Republican Congressional Committee ads target Democratic incumbent Reps. Ron Barber of Arizona and Nick Rahall of West Virginia, as well as Gwen Graham, running in Florida’s 2nd District, Staci Appel in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District and Aaron Woolf in New York’s 21st District.

{mosads}And for the first time this cycle, the NRCC spent money on ads targeting Emily Cain in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, Sean Eldridge in New York’s 19th District and John Foust in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District.

The Barber ad, “Taxes for Us,” accuses the congressman and one-time aide to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) of supporting spending U.S. tax dollars to create jobs in China and defending ObamaCare.

The Rahall ad features West Virginia coal miner Darrell Atkins, who knocks the Democrat for siding with President Obama. “We need someone to stand up to Barack Obama,” Atkins says.

The others are just as hard-hitting. Graham, the daughter of former Florida Gov. Bob Graham, who is trying to oust GOP Rep. Steve Southerland, was an aide on Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, when he proposed government-run healthcare, the NRCC ad says. It includes Dean’s infamous “primal scream.”

In the Foust ad, “Real Job,” the NRCC hits the Fairfax County supervisor for saying state Del. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) hasn’t had a real job. “John Foust said being a working mother is not a real job,” a female narrator goes on to say.

The new 30-second spots are part of $42 million in total ad buys the NRCC has reserved from late August through Election Day, a spokesman said. For example, in Barber’s race against GOP challenger Martha McSally, the NRCC is spending $1.3 million.

This post was updated at 7:14 p.m.