Jack Conway launches first negative nominee ad, hammering Matt Bevin over taxes

cn|2 Pure Politics ^ | 8/18/2015 | Kevin Wheatley

[Republican Wildcat]

Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway launched the first negative ad from a gubernatorial nominee on Tuesday, hitting Republican Matt Bevin on seemingly every tax issue that has emerged this year and in last year’s U.S. Senate primary.

The 30-second spot, titled “30 Times,” begins with Bevin’s press conference upon launching his bid to unseat then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, telling reporters that he had “no tax delinquency problem, nor have I ever.”

The ad then transitions to reports of more than $100,000 owed by Bevin Brothers Manufacturing in East Hampton, Conn., earning the company a spot atop a listing of the region’s tax delinquents in May 2011.

“He’s been cited for failing to pay his personal taxes 30 times,” a male narrator says. “Now Bevin won’t release his tax returns. What’s he hiding?”

The spot can be viewed here:

The ad comes a week after the Democratic super PAC Kentucky Family Values released a 30-second TV spot with a similar theme alongside the same Bevin soundbite.

Bevin campaign manager Ben Hartman did not return phone and email messages seeking comment, but some of the ad’s claims have been previously dismissed by independent fact-checkers like FactCheck.org, which reported that Bevin paid off back taxes on his family’s bell-making business after assuming control of the company in August 2011.

FactCheck.org and others have also reported that Bevin’s late property tax payments on a Maine vacation home was the fault of a new mortgage company, with $6,244 in back taxes paid in full by February 2009.

[Republican Wildcat]

I’m assuming they meant “campaign” ad vs. “nominee” ad...but it’s their headline. :-)

[jimpick]

I would just run a ad that says “unlike Charlie Rangel, insert dems, and so many that work for the federal government”. Then state “I am running to help clean up the tax cheat problems that we have”.