Just days after Sen. Tammy Baldwin blamed her rock-bottom approval ratings on spending by “the Koch Brothers” and the “out of state special interests,” the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is now calling her bluff.
The truth is, Democratic dark money from Harry Reid’s superPAC and front groups for the likes of billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer have poured in nearly $4 million this cycle alone to prop up Senator Baldwin. It’s just more convenient for her to blame someone else rather than fess up that it’s her vote against tax cuts for hard-working voters across the state that is what’s really hurting her re-election chances.
Here’s what the Journal-Sentinel had to say:
“To learn of Tammy Baldwin’s suffering at the hands of ‘outside money,’ one only needs to view a television advertisement currently running on her behalf by a group called ‘VoteVets.’
Curiously, the ad doesn’t mention the fact that the “Vote Vets Action Fund” is itself a “dark money” campaign outfit which is … (Puts on sunglasses) … based in Washington, D.C.
In fact, according to its chairman, VoteVets spent between $7 million and $8 million in each of the three election cycles prior to 2016, making it one of the largest independent expenditure groups on the left. It has recently dedicated $1 million to helping Baldwin earn re-election.
But perhaps most notably, VoteVets has received as much as $890,000 from the NextGen Climate Action Committee, a group backed by wealthy progressive donor Tom Steyer. In other words, “an out-of-state billionaire.” …
And yet, evidently, Tammy Baldwin is unaffected by such crude campaign expenditures — just ask the unions and environmentalists spending millions of dollars to keep her in office.”
“Senator Baldwin should take responsibility for her own declining approval ratings,” said NRSC spokesman Calvin Moore. “If voters are bailing on her campaign, it’s because they know she’ll always put liberal friends in Congress, like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, ahead of the people she represents. Why else would she vote against tax cuts for her constituents?”