GOP super PAC launches $1.5M ad buy in Pennsylvania special election

A top House GOP super PAC is rolling out its first TV ad ahead of Pennsylvania’s upcoming special election, seeking to link Democrat Conor Lamb to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.).

The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) ad, which is backed by $1.5 million, targets Lamb as one of Pelosi’s “sheep” and argues that he’ll support her “extreme agenda.”

Lamb squares off against state Rep. Rick Saccone (R) in the March 13 special election. President Trump has already traveled to the state and endorsed the the GOP candidate.

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The CLF has used Pelosi as a foil in past special elections and a memo the super PAC released on Wednesday found that she has underwater favorability ratings in 69 congressional districts that it surveyed.

“His name is Conor Lamb. But in Washington, he’d be one of Nancy Pelosi’s sheep,” a narrator says in the GOP super PAC’s ad. “Lamb would join the liberal flock and follow Pelosi’s lead, voting the straight liberal party line for Pelosi’s extreme agenda: higher taxes, wasteful spending, job-crushing regulations, a weaker military.”

The ad buy is CLF’s latest effort to boost Saccone in a district where Trump won by almost 20 points in the 2016 election.

The super PAC already has a large footprint in the district with two field offices, which will have at least 50 full-time door knockers.

CLF, among other Republican groups, waded into the special election early to prevent another upset by Democrats in a deep-red area. Trump backs Saccone and said he’ll hold a campaign rally for him.

“Nancy Pelosi is the most unpopular, most toxic elected official in the country, and Conor Lamb is running to be her rubber stamp in Congress,” CLF executive director Corry Bliss said. “Pennsylvanians deserve a proven conservative leader like Rick Saccone, who will stand up for Pennsylvania families and their values.”

Meanwhile, national Democrats had been weighing whether they want to get involved in the special election and are starting to ramp up their involvement to boost Lamb, a Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will spend $69,000 on the initial ad buy, which will start next week and run for two weeks.

And Lamb’s campaign has been up on the air, booking about $100,000 in television time. The first TV ad pitched him as someone who will work across the aisle and support new leadership.