Launches two TV ads, mail & voter contact programs that target voters likely to decide the election
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Victory Fund today announced a major $4.2 million North Carolina Senate program to defeat state Speaker of the House Tills and re-elect Senator Kay Hagan. The program includes the launch of two television ads that will run in the Greensboro media market through Election Day, a mail program, and a voter contact program that will knock on more than 640,000 doors across the state by November 4th.
“Republican Senate nominee Thom Tillis would leave North Carolinians vulnerable to harmful pollution from coal ash ponds, power plants, and other sources of contamination. We’re making sure that voters know about Thom Tillis’ support for polluters’ profits over public health. Senator Kay Hagan tirelessly works to hold polluters accountable and protect the air we breathe,” said Daniel J. Weiss, LCV Victory Fund Senior Vice President for Campaigns.
The $400,000 television ad campaign makes clear that Tillis’ agenda benefits oil billionaire Koch Brothers and not North Carolina families. The first ad, “Pay for It,” highlights the weak coal ash law that Speaker Tillis pushed through the state legislature, which leaves waters vulnerable to contamination from future coal ash spills and could leave consumers footing the bill for coal ash clean-up costs. Tillis’ pro-polluter agenda helps explain why the Koch Brothers’ front groups are spending millions of dollars to support Tillis’ campaign. Backup for the ad is available here.
The second ad, “No Limits,” highlights other areas where Tillis supports the Koch Brothers’ agenda. Like the Koch Brothers front group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which has spent nearly $9 million on ads against Hagan, Tillis opposes the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan and would let polluters continue to dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into our air. Tillis also denies climate science and signed a pledge that protects tax breaks for oil companies. Backup for the ad is available here.
This program also includes a $2.2 million voter contact effort aimed at turning out likely Hagan supporters who voted in the 2012 Presidential election but did not vote in the 2010 midterm election. LCV Victory Fund will also conduct a $1.6 million mail and digital media persuasion campaign. It’s part of LCV’s $25 million effort this cycle to preserve the crucial environmental firewall in the Senate and shift the politics of climate change at the national and state levels.
Tillis was recently added to LCV’s trademark Dirty Dozen program this cycle. The Dirty Dozen targets candidates — regardless of party affiliation — who consistently side against the environment and are running in races in which LCV has a serious chance to affect the outcome. Last cycle, LCV defeated 11 of the 12 Dirty Dozen candidates.
In May, LCV Action Fund, which works to elect candidates who will implement sound environmental policies, endorsed Senator Hagan for re-election, citing her work to protect public health and open spaces. Senator Hagan has earned an 84% lifetime score on LCV’s National Environmental Scorecard. The non-partisan Scorecard is a nationally accepted yardstick used to rate members of Congress on environmental and clean energy issues. For more information, visit https://scorecard.lcv.org.
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Paid for by LCV Victory Fund, www.lcvvictoryfund.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.