NRCC takes one small step to stimulate economy in Southern Minnesota

In the Atlantic article, NRCC Airs Ads Bonking Dems On Stimulus, Marc Ambinder observes:

The National Republican Campaign Committee is hitting 30 Democrats with radio ads blasting their support for the stimulus package, a spokesman said.  Listen to an example of the ad here.  The ads say that these Dems "voted for a wasteful, porkbarreled spending program," and include the Litany -- STDs, smoking cessations, NEA funding.  The ad buys aren't large, but they're the first major effort by the right-of-center crowd to hold Democrats accountable. According to the NRCC, the ads target:   John Barrow (GA-12); Bruce Braley (IA-01); Chris Carney (PA-10); Travis Childers (MS-01); Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03); Steve Driehaus (OH-01); Chet Edwards (TX-17); Bart Gordon (TN-06); Alan Grayson (FL-08); John Hall (NY-19); Steve Kagen (WI-08); Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15); Larry Kissell (NC-08); Suzanne Kosmas (FL-24); Dan Maffei (NY-25); Betsy Markey (CO-04); Eric Massa (NY-29); Jerry McNerney (CA-11); Charlie Melancon (LA-03); Dennis Moore (KS-03); Glenn Nye (VA-02); John Salazar (CO-03); Mark Schauer (MI-07); Kurt Schrader (OR-05); Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01); Ike Skelton (MO-04); Zack Space (OH-18); Harry Teague (NM-02); Dina Titus (NV-03) and Tim Walz (MN-01).

That template ad should make Southern Minnesotans feel special, as might the boilerplate press release the NRCC blasted into the 30 districts. A choice sentence:

Democrats said they would fight for fiscal responsibility in Washington, but went back on their promise by voting for $335 million in STD prevention, $75 million for smoking cessation and even $50 million for the National Endowment of the Arts.

We're guessing that the NRCC must consider public health measures aimed at preventing disease and decreasing health risks as somehow less prudent than spending funds on treating those marvelous "social diseases" we heard about as kids--or in getting people to stop smoking.

Nor does it deem it necessary to note, as does USAToday in GOP radio ads to target House Dems who supported stimulus that the Senate stripped the bill of the supposedly offensive fundng.

Perhaps the nedia buy is the NRCC's own stimulus package, designed to promote opportunity in health care by making sure there's enough preventable disease to go around. Funny, but those nice doctors working on health care policy at Mayo have urged increased attention to preventing disease in the first place.

Or perhaps they hope to kick start the radio industry. One thing we know, the $570 that the NRCC is spending at Rochester's KROC-AM in Minnesota's First isn't going to stimulate the local media industry. We told by two indpendent sources that sum is the extent of the media buy.