2009 Governor's race: Democratic back PAC hammers McDonnell in TV ad blitz

1:53 p.m.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A Democratic political action committee is spending more than half a million dollars on a TV advertising blitz that hammers Republican Bob McDonnell for his opposition to enhanced unemployment benefits.
It's by far the heaviest television buy of this year's governor's race and the first to include the expensive northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., market.
It also marked the sharpest escalation yet in a Democratic strategy targeting Republicans for voting along party lines April 8 in the General Assembly to reject $125 million in federal stimulus cash. Those funds are intended to sweeten unemployment insurance benefits as the March state jobless rate nearly doubled, from 3.6 percent last March to 7 percent at latest report.
Common Sense Virginia is spending $550,000 on the seven-day ad run in the state's dominant media markets. The Democratic Governors Association has given the PAC more than $850,000 since mid-March.
The ad opens with scenes of an empty refrigerator, a car fuel gauge on empty and an announcer accusing presumed GOP nominee McDonnell of worsening the crisis for the jobless. It concludes, "If Bob McDonnell won't stand up for Virginia's unemployed, do you think he'd stand up for you?"
The ad refers to McDonnell's support for the vote in the GOP-dominated House of Delegates to reject Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's unemployment benefit enhancement amendments.
Kaine, who is also chairman of the Democratic National Committee, asked lawmakers to make benefits available for the first time to part-time workers. He also sought to extend the benefits eligibility period for people who lost jobs through no fault of their own and are training for new jobs.
Republicans and business organizations railed against the changes as a federal intrusion into state matters, saying that would eventually force employers to pay higher unemployment insurance taxes on each of their workers after the stimulus cash runs out.
Republicans are defending their six-seat majority in the 100-member House in this fall's legislative elections. McDonnell is unchallenged for the GOP nomination for governor this fall.
McDonnell campaign spokesman J. Tucker Martin dismissed the ad campaign as "another misleading, negative attack by an outside group funded by national Democrats."
McDonnell, however, has taken even more national party cash. Republicans, reeling nationally from last fall's election losses, are desperate to end an eight-year losing skid in contested statewide races in Virginia, where the GOP controlled every elected institution of power as recently as 2001.
The Republican Governors Association has given McDonnell nearly $1.25 million - one-fourth of the slightly more than $5 million his campaign has raised so far. The race is already on track to shatter state fundraising records, inundated by heavy spending by both national parties.
The DGA established Common Sense Virginia to carry the fight to McDonnell while Democrats R. Creigh Deeds, Terry R. McAuliffe and Brian J. Moran battle among themselves through their June 9 gubernatorial primary.
Through Monday, CSV will spend slightly more than $400,000 to reach the large, Democratic-leaning electorate in Virginia's Washington suburbs.
Downstate, it is spending nearly $55,000 to air the 30-second ad in Richmond, almost $45,000 in Roanoke's television market and slightly more than $52,000 in Norfolk. It is augmenting its over-the-air buy by purchasing time in cable systems in each of those markets.

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11:18 a.m.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A Democratic political action committee is spending more than half a million dollars on television ads hammering Republican Bob McDonnell's opposition to enhanced unemployment aid.
It's by far the heaviest television buy of this year's governor's race and the first to include the expensive northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., market.
Common Sense Virginia is spending $550,000 on the seven-day statewide run. The Democratic Governors Association has given the PAC more than $850,000 since mid-March.
The ad opens with scenes of an empty refrigerator, a car fuel gauge on empty and an announcer saying presumed GOP nominee McDonnell worsened the pain for the jobless.
It ends with the question, "If Bob McDonnell won't stand up for Virginia's unemployed, do you think he'd stand up for you?"