Boehner-aligned group launches $1M campaign for trade

An outside group aligned with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday it will spend nearly $1 million on TV, radio and other ads providing cover to Republicans backing a bill to give fast-track trade authority to President Obama.

{mosads}American Action Network’s (AAN) trade campaign includes a $375,000 ad buy that will run nationally on Fox News; $250,000 on mailers targeting conservative households in 25 GOP-held congressional districts; and $200,000 on digital ads reaching conservatives in 65 congressional districts. It will spend another $75,000 on radio ads in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

“China is trying to stack the deck on international trade, and America must respond if we’re to stay No. 1. …” a narrator says in the TV ad airing on Fox News. “Conservatives need to stand up for American jobs and rebuild U.S. credibility around the world by passing the trade promotion authority.

“If we don’t lead on global trade, China will,” the ad concludes.

The fast-track legislation, which would give Obama the ability to send Congress trade deals for an up-or-down vote without the opportunity for amendments, passed the Senate last month. House GOP leaders are expected to bring the bill to a vote in their chamber within weeks.

AAN, a nonprofit group whose board includes former Boehner chief of staff Barry Jackson, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in attack ads targeting conservatives who threatened to shut down the Department of Homeland Security.

But by law, the group cannot directly coordinate with Boehner or other members of Congress.

“The conservative choice on trade is to be for TPA,” said AAN President Mike Shields, a former Republican National Committee chief of staff who also has ties to Boehner, referring to trade promotion authority legislation.

“If we don’t pass a bill that allows America more access to trade,” he said, “then China will have a bigger share of the market and keep rigging international trade. It’s a question of who you want to lead: the U.S. or China.”