Capito ties Dem challenger to Obama in new ad

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) ties her Democratic Senate challenger, West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, to President Obama in her newest ad.

{mosads}The minutelong spot features Capito speaking about Obama to a group of factory workers, saying he’s “a president who doesn’t seem to care.”

“The president’s come out with rules that say no new coal fired power plants. But what he’s going to come out with in next several months is, you are not even going to be able to even burn coal very limitedly in the existing plants,” she warns. “And this is really going to hurt West Virginia.”

A narrator goes on to say that, when “Obama declared his war on coal, Natalie Tennant not only defended him, but endorsed him for president, twice” as a shot of Tennant stumping for the president flashes on the screen. The narrator adds that Tennant’s campaign is “being heavily financed by some of the most radical anti-coal people in the country.”

Capito closes out the ad by declaring to the factory workers, “the president doesn’t understand West Virginia.”

President Obama is facing his second-lowest popularity rating in the nation in West Virginia, and so he and his energy policies — which impact the state’s coal industry, a sizeable portion of its economy — have been a central plank of GOP attacks on Tennant in the race.

Tennant has sought to emphasize her own independence from the president, launching an ad this week in which she turns the lights off on the White House and promises to stand up to President Obama. But his unpopularity has put her in a tricky spot, and on Tuesday, asked whether she would campaign with the president, she said “I’m not sure.”

“And he’s not on the ballot,” she added.