DCCC nails Stivers in new ad

National Republicans have been talking up state Sen. Steve Stivers (R-Columbus) as one of their top congressional recruits this cycle. But in a new television advertisement hitting the central Ohio airwaves, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is trying to puncture Stivers’s balloon.

Democrats insist that Stivers is nothing more than a George Bush-style Republican who is a former lobbyist. The message comes through loud and clear in the new 30-second spot.

“Steve Stivers wants to go to Washington. But he already sounds like George Bush,” an announcer says in the ad, which then cuts to Stivers saying: “unemployment is low.”

“Steve Stivers supports taxpayer giveaways to big oil,” the announcer continues. “He said it would be morally wrong to repeal any tax cuts for the wealthy. And Steve Stivers is a former banking lobbyist who is one of only for state senators to vote against cracking down on predatory lending.”

The ad concludes, “Steve Stivers. More Bush economics. Less for the Ohio middle class.”

Stivers is competing against Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy for the Columbus-area seat of U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce, who is retiring after serving eight terms in the House. The contest is widely seen as one of the most hotly contested in the nation, with the Pindell Report currently ranking the seat as the sixth most competitive House race.

A spokesman for the DCCC did not specify how much the organization was paying to air the ad, though Federal Election Committee reports filed in the last month show the committee taking out a $36,000 media buy in the district.