Irony: After Heitkamp Says Democrat Senate Majority Doesn’t Matter, Harry Reid Attacks Berg
In a Politico profile of North Dakota’s Senate race published over the weekend Democrat candidate Heidi Heitkamp tried to downplay the fact that electing her would help her party keep control of the Senate.
“At the end of the day, it’s not about control of anything, other than representation of North Dakota,” she said. “Everybody makes a big deal out of control of the Senate. Right now, you need 60 votes. No one controls the Senate. That’s a huge problem. No one controls the Senate now because nothing gets done.”
It’s ironic, then, that just after Heitkamp spoke those words her biggest supporter – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid – launched another attack campaign on Republican Rick Berg through his super PAC.
Majority PAC launched new ads in North Dakota and Connecticut slamming Republican candidates for the Senate on cuts to education and Social Security. …
The ad running in North Dakota charges that Rep. Rick Berg (R) has “gone Washington,” citing what it characterizes as his votes to cut funding for higher education loans and scholarships while supporting tax cuts for the wealthy.
“We got more bills for a dimmer future,” the ad charges.
Berg is running slightly ahead of challenger Heidi Heitkamp (D) for retiring Sen. Kent Conrad’s (D) seat, but Democrats believe this is one they can win, and have spent hundreds of thousands in the state in attacks on Berg. The charge that he’s “gone Washington” is a common one, as Heitkamp has no Washington record to speak of and thus remains immune to those attacks.
Even as Heitkamp has distanced herself from her party – she didn’t attend her national convention, she said she doesn’t care about her party’s platform and she’s claimed that Democrats holding the Senate doesn’t matter to her – Majority Leader Harry Reid has spent millions to elect Heitkamp.
Reid contributed $10,000 to Heitkamp’s campaign directly through his Searchlight Leadership Fund, and independent has spent $1,348,999 on advertising in support of Heitkamp including $299,546 in the last week according to the most recent numbers from OpenSecrets.org.
It’s a little hard to believe Heitkamp’s claims that she’ll be an independent voice, that her partisan affiliation doesn’t matter, when someone like Reid is spending so much to get her elected.
Here’s the ad:
