At least that’s how the folks at American Commitment put it.
While I don’t think attacks based on mysterious unknown billionaires are particularly effective, the new ad from American Commitment arguing that Colorado Senator Mark Udall has sold out Coloradoans by opposing the Keystone Pipeline is a good one.
The vote against the pipeline is more important than the fact that an anti-pipeline billionaire actually supports Udall’s campaign, partly because the radical environmentalist Udall’s vote is not a surprise; he almost certainly would have voted that way without additional incentive from Steyer.
But as long as the left is going to keep making an issue out of rich conservatives or libertarians, it’s sensible for the right to argue “they have their rich guys, too” basically as a way to neutralize this (already not very effective) tactic. And the additional local references to Steyer’s malevolent reach also make this a better-than-average “see the politician and the billionaire?” commercial.
Separately, Phil Kerpen, who runs American Commitment, must be doing something right since Harry Reid is trying to raise money by going after him and, not surprisingly, trying to tie Phil to the Koch brothers.
Here’s the anti-Reid ad which seems to have set Dingy Harry off to begin with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScCejJBRO24
Again, I don’t think that trying to tie people to billionaires is an effective strategy, but when it comes to candidates actually taking campaign contributions from the uber-rich and being hosted by them at events, the connections may possibly get close enough to impact a few voters’ perceptions. Mostly, I think the issue is the issues, e.g. that Mark Udall’s votes are more important than who shares his views on those votes. And when it comes to the issues, Mark Udall is far far to the left of most of Colorado.
