A super PAC aligned with House GOP leadership announced on Tuesday that it would be spending an added $4 million to take on Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Democrats’ campaign arm.
The new spending, which was first reported by Punchbowl News, will be targeting the New York City broadcast market, according to the super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund. In addition to the announcement, the super PAC said it would begin airing on Wednesday a 15-second ad targeting Maloney on cash bail and crime.
The ad plays a clip of a moderator asking candidates if they believe in ending cash bail, then shows Maloney saying “Absolutely, and I’d make it a top priority.”
“Sean Patrick Maloney wants it easier for violent criminals to get back on the street,” a narrator ends the ad by saying.
Maloney hit back at the super PAC’s expenditure in a statement and called his GOP contender Mike Lawler “another Trump errand boy.”
“Republicans have spent millions against me and their numbers still say MAGA Mike Lawler is losing. CLF can light another $4 million on fire and peddle open racism in an attempt to rescue their loser candidate — it won’t work,” he said.
“I’ve won 5 times in a Trump district and I didn’t need to play footsie with insurrectionists to do it. Lawler is just another Trump errand boy who will be too busy taking away your reproductive rights to deliver for the Hudson Valley.”
Maloney’s campaign also pointed to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman’s support for law enforcement, including $7 million he had helped obtain for local law enforcement and noted that he disapproved of the idea to defund the police.
The ad and announcement come three weeks out from the November midterms. Maloney represents the 18th Congressional District but chose to run in the 17th Congressional District due to redistricting. That forced Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), who currently represents the 17th Congressional District, to run in the 10th, where he later lost the Democratic primary, in an effort to avoid going head to head with Maloney.
Maloney, however, is gearing up for a competitive reelection bid. Punchbowl News noted that the Congressional Leadership Fund already announced a $2 million expenditure in the race prior to the Tuesday announcement.
“Sean Patrick Maloney’s hubris is catching up with him,” said Congressional Leadership Fund President Dan Conston in a statement. “Maloney made a grave miscalculation in giving up incumbency and we have a real shot to beat him in November.”
The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates the seat as “lean Democrat.”