New Grimes ad attacks McConnell on Medicare
Alison Lundergan Grimes will go on the offensive Tuesday morning with an ad that accuses Sen. Mitch McConnell of voting to raise seniors' Medicare costs by $6,000.
The folksy 30-second spot uses the same music that was in Grimes's 2011 commercial that starred her two grandmothers, Thelma Lundergan McHugh and Elsie Case.
The McConnell campaign shot back with a statement saying that Grimes is panicking.
The ad features Grimes and a retired coal miner, sitting on chairs in front of an old fire engine.
"I'm Alison Lundergan Grimes and this is Don Disney from Cloverlick, Kentucky, and he has a question for Senator McConnell," Grimes says.
"Senator, I'm a retired coal miner. I want to know how you could've voted to raise my Medicare costs by six thousand dollars. How are my wife and I supposed to afford that?" Disney asks.
After a long pause, Grimes says,"I don't think he's gonna answer that… I approved this message because I'll work to strengthen Medicare, not bankrupt seniors like Don."
The vote refers to a 2011 procedural vote on the Paul Ryan budget. McConnell was one of the Republicans who voted to proceed to a vote on the bill. The motion failed.
According to the Washington Post Fact Checker, the "left-leaning" Center on Budget and Policy Priorities ruled that under the Ryan plan, the out of pocket expenses for Medicare recipients would rise from $6,000 to $12,000 annually by the year 2022. The American Medical Association, however, says that if the plan had been in place in 2009, Medicare costs would have gone up just $800 for each senior citizen.
"It says a lot about the candidacy of Alison Lundergan Grimes that she's a full four months away from the election and she already hit the panic button by resorting to the oldest, most cynical attack in the Obama playbook to scare Kentucky seniors," McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore said in a statement.
" he simple reality is that Senator McConnell has fought to protect Medicare, while Alison Lundergan Grimes and her political benefactors have raided it by $700 billion to pay for Obamacare," Moore said.
The ad marks the first time that Grimes has hit the airways attacking McConnell.
Jonathan Hurst, Grimes' campaign manager, said the ad is running statewide on broadcast and cable television. It is scheduled to run for one week.
The buy on broadcast in the Louisville market cost the campaign more than $52,000, according to records on file with the Federal Communications Commission. Time-Warner Cable's website shows that Grimes also purchased more than $13,000 worth of ads on cable television in Lexington.
The ad will begin airing at 6:30 a.m.
Also going up on the air today is an ad by the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, a super PAC supporting McConnell. The ad attacks Grimes, accusing her of not being forthcoming on issues.