Super PAC launches $250K ad buy to boost Dem in heated Pa. race

A top Democratic super PAC is launching a $250,000 television ad buy to boost Democratic candidate Conor Lamb ahead of next month’s Pennsylvania special election.

Republicans have far outspent Democrats on the airwaves in the district as they look to support Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone’s bid for the March 13 election. The new ad campaign — which includes about a quarter-million dollars of spending on digital and television — is meant to help close the spending gap between the two candidates amid tightening polls.

{mosads}

The ad buy by Patriot Majority PAC seizes on recent reports that Saccone used an expense account while serving in the legislature, which Democrats have framed as excessive.

“Conor Lamb is a Marine and former prosecutor, with a proven record of putting drug dealers behind bars, who will work to create good paying jobs, make health care more affordable, and protect Medicare and Social Security,” said Craig Varoga, the PAC president and a Pittsburgh native.

“Rick Saccone has allowed lobbyists to pay for lavish meals for himself and billed Pennsylvania taxpayers $435,172 in questionable expenses, all on top of an $87,180 annual salary. Case closed,” he said.

While the district voted for President Trump by about 20 points in 2016, recent polling shows Lamb within just a few points of Saccone. And the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election analysis website, recently rated the race as a “toss-up.”

The recent developments have prompted a flurry of Republican money into the district as the GOP looks to avoid an embarrassing loss in a conservative district.

Republicans have attacked Lamb in recent weeks by linking him to both former President Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the hopes of firing up Republican voters to head to the polls. Much of the Republican effort has also focused on attacking Lamb for saying he wouldn’t have supported the GOP’s recent tax-reform plan.