TAMPA, Fla. -- The Obama-supporting super PAC Priorities USA Action is plotting its biggest television ad campaign, a $30 million effort attacking Mitt Romney for his tenure as governor of Massachusetts and his broader economic policy.
The spot, featuring a testimonial from Olive Chase, a well-regarded chef on Cape Cod, is a new twist for Priorities USA Action. While previous ads from the group have focused on Romney's tenure in private equity, this one accuses the presumptive Republican nominee of failing to live up to his promises of turning around the Bay State's economic malaise during the early-2000s.
Bill Burton, the co-founder of Priorities USA Action, told The Huffington Post that the group has put $30 million behind the spot, $10 million more than it devoted to its series of (sometimes controversial) Bain ads. It's unclear whether the group has the money now to pay for those ads, or whether it's banking on future fundraising. According to its most recent Federal Election Commission report, Priorities USA Action had $4.2 million cash on hand at the end of July.
That said, fundraising seems destined to pick up for the group as the election heads into its defining last months.
"We will have the resources for it," Burton said.
The new ad, featuring Chase, owner of The Casual Gourmet, echoes spots being run by conservative outside groups featuring disaffected Romney voters. Chase did donate to Romney's gubernatorial campaign, according to a report by the Blue Mass Group, a progressive website in Massachusetts. She's been supportive of Democrats as well, including state Senate President Therese Murray.
"Governor Romney promised that he would bring jobs to this state. By the time Governor Romney left office, we had fallen to 47th in the nation in terms of job growth," Chase says in the ad. "Governor Romney cares about big business, he cares about tax cuts for wealthy people and I certainly do not believe he cares about my hard-working employees. I feel like I was duped by Mitt Romney. I’m going to vote for President Obama."
UPDATE: Romney spokesperson Amanda Henneberg emails over the following response to the ad:
This is a desperate attempt by the President’s allies to try and distract voters from President Obama’s failed record. President Obama’s policies have devastated the middle class and led to record unemployment and less take-home pay. We are happy to compare the 4.7% unemployment rate Mitt Romney achieved with President Obama’s record of 42 straight months of unemployment above 8 percent any day.
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