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Share ThisJun 29, 2007
Anchorage Daily News - Democrats ready Don Young attack ads
A D.C.-based group that works to get Democrats elected to Congress plans to attack Rep. Don Young's military voting record in daily radio ads beginning Monday.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee -- the campaign arm of the House Democrats, which has been trying to recruit Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, among others, to run against Young -- says it's buying air time on three Anchorage radio stations.
The ads will say Young voted against bonuses for U.S. troops and certain benefits for military veterans, said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat and chairman of the group.
Young spokeswoman Meredith Kenny said this is the wrong fight to pick with Young, an Army veteran.
"I don't understand, honestly, where they get that from, because he's always been very supportive of our military and our troops and of our veterans," she said.
The ad campaign is part of a multi-state effort to question Republican incumbents on their support of the military as Independence Day approaches.
Van Hollen said the DCCC plans to air similar radio ads in West Virginia, Missouri, North Carolina, Michigan, Nevada and New York. It will also use Web videos and phone calls to target voters in New York and six other states.
Democratic campaign committee spokesman Fernando Cuevas said the group chose to air the ads in states that have a high percentage of veterans. The Alaska ads will run for five days.
The National Republican Congressional Committee -- the Democratic committee's rival -- described the ad campaign as misleading.
"Without a single accomplishment to tout this Independence Day, I think the Democrats are trying to deflect from their own records," said NRCC spokeswoman Julie Shutley.
Begich has said he's received recruitment calls from both the Democratic congressional and senatorial campaign committees, but hasn't decided if he'll run for higher office. Former Rep. Ethan Berkowitz, D-Anchorage, is also considered a potential candidate, among others.
In the wake of newly publicized reports that Young steered federal funding to a Florida project that would benefit one of his campaign donors, Democrats see Young as vulnerable. The congressman has called the story "old news."
Shutley said Young was re-elected in 2006, one of the toughest election cycles for Republicans since Watergate.
"Congressman Young has really delivered for the people of Alaska, has been hardworking and I think that his record will get him sent back to Congress next year," she said.
The DCCC's Alaska ads will criticize Young for two votes he cast in 2003. Democrats say one vote was against an amendment to provide a $1,500 bonus for troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan; the other was against a motion that would have let veterans immediately receive full disability and full retirement benefits simultaneously.
Young's staff rebutted the claims in an e-mail Thursday, writing that Young voted against the bonus because it was "too limited in scope" and "ignored other military personnel in hostile zones." Young's team wrote that the motion on disability and retirement benefits "would have been extremely costly and was done as a last minute procedural move."
Both those votes failed, largely along party lines.
Democrat Diane Benson, who ran a relatively low-cost campaign against Young and finished with 40 percent of the vote compared to Young's 57 percent, said she'll run against him again next year. She planned to hold her first fundraiser Thursday night.
