The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a new TV ad today in Arizona targeting Mark Kelly for his company’s use of a $15 million taxpayer-funded facility without creating the 400 jobs it promised.
“Mark Kelly will do anything for a buck, and that includes letting the company he co-founded take $15 million in taxpayer dollars in exchange for hundreds of jobs that still don’t exist,” said NRSC spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez. “Now Kelly will say anything for a vote. He is misleading Arizonans again in the hopes they won’t discover that his mere presence in Washington would enable the most liberal Democratic agenda in history.”
Kelly co-founded and advised a space company called World View Enterprises up until he announced his Senate run. The company promised Pima County it would create 400 jobs by 2020 in exchange for use of a $15 million taxpayer-funded launch facility. As reported by The Arizona Republic earlier this year, “The deal hasn’t worked out the way anyone hoped.” The company had met less than 25% of its jobs goal by February 2019 after laying off 10 employees. As reported today in a deep dive of Kelly’s financials, Kelly “still owns company stock worth at least $100,000.”
TRANSCRIPT
Narrator: “Mark Kelly wants to take his bike to Washington, but you should know he already took taxpayers for a ride.
“In Tucson, Mark Kelly’s company promised 400 jobs to get 15 million bucks from taxpayers. That promise? Just hot air.
“Mark Kelly’s company barely hired 100 people, no where near 400. But Kelly’s company kept the money, then asked for more.
“Mark Kelly in Washington? He’d fit right in.”