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Democrat Paul Clements (left) and U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph.
(Courtesy/MLive/FILE)
A national crowd-funded super PAC that describes itself as the "super PAC to end all super PACs" launched a $1.5 million ad campaign against Congressman Fred Upton accusing him of taking $10 million from special interests during his time in office.
A 30-second ad, which launched on local and cable television stations in the Grand Rapids market Thursday morning, accuses Upton, R-St. Joseph, of taking more $2.5 million from "big drug, insurance, and related interests – while voting against allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for seniors and in favor of allowing insurance companies to deny care to people with pre-existing conditions."
A press release from Mayday PAC that accompanied the ad said Upton has accepted $10 million from special interest groups in general during his time in office.
"Fred Upton is the worst of the worst when it comes to crony capitalism and this is a great place to show that voters care about the influence of big money in politics," said Mark McKinnon, former media strategist for George W. Bush and co-founder of the Mayday PAC. "Using the power of crowd-funding, we're going to give Fred Upton the fight of his political life and send a message to other crooked politicians that no matter how powerful you are or how entrenched you have become, we're coming after you and we're going to take our democracy back."
The Mayday PAC, founded in 2014, is funded by more than 60,000 small donations, according to McKinnon. Its total campaign against Upton includes the $1.2 million television ad in addition to another $300,000 in mailers and voter-contact efforts.
Upton, the current chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee who was first elected in 1986, is being challenged in the 6th Congressional District by Democrat Paul Clements, Libertarian Erwin Haas and Green Party candidate John Lawrence. His campaign denied the claims made in the Mayday ad.
"Only an out-of touch Super PAC would attack Fred for standing with the American Legion and Military Order of the Purple Heart to preserve seniors access to life-saving medications," said Upton's campaign manager, Tom Wilbur, in a prepared statement.
Wilbur said Upton was not against lowering Medicare drug prices as the ad claims because Upton "stood with the American Legion and Military Order of the Purple Heart to protect access for seniors to life-saving medications. Additionally, Fred supported the Medicare Prescription Drug plan – which gave prescription drug coverage to 11 million seniors that didn't previously have it," Wilbur said.
Wilbur added that while Upton did vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, he also fought to direct more federal funding to people with pre-existing conditions.
Finally, Wilbur said the claim that Upton has accepted $2.5 million in contributions from insurance companies is false because corporations cannot contribute to Congressional campaigns.
"The false and misleading Massachusetts Super PAC's smear ad against Fred is what is wrong with politics," Wilbur said. "Fred has a consistent record finding bipartisan solutions to help Southwest Michigan families, including his work to speed up the approval process of medications to find cures for diseases and to make health care more affordable and accessible for local seniors."
McKinnon said Mayday, which launched on May 1 and raised $6 million through crowd-funding by July 4, is an experiment to see if the group can make money in politics an issue that impacts this and future elections.
"The issues that surface today that get any attention are driven by money rather than what's good for the country," McKinnon said. "We're hoping to change that."
McKinnon said 2014 is a soft launch for Mayday. If the PAC feels it has success this time around, he said there are plans to "really put this thing on steroids for the 2016 election," although McKinnon admitted even he's not sure exactly what that means at this point.
McKinnon said Upton was one of Mayday's first targets because Upton has shown he is connected to special interests and votes accordingly. One of the worst examples of this was when Upton said everything should be considered for reducing carbon emissions, but altered his stance after becoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2011, McKinnon said.
McKinnon said the group also has the sense that Upton is vulnerable. The fact that Upton won with only 54 percent of the vote in 2012 -- his lowest margin of victory since taking office -- and that Obama only lost the 6th Congressional District by a point in that election shows it's "clearly a swing district," McKinnon said.
"The bottom line is that Fred Upton is terrible on money and politics issues and Clements is great and we like him a lot," McKinnon said.
Clements, a professor at Western Michigan University, is making his first bid for public office, but has made a good showing by raising more money than Upton's previous two Democratic opponents combined, according to Clements' campaign.
The self-described non-partisan Mayday PAC has also launched ads in support of Republican Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina, Republican Senate candidate Jim Rubens of New Hampshire, Democratic House candidate Staci Appel of Iowa, Democratic House candidate Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Democratic Senate candidate Rick Weiland of South Dakota.
McKinnon admitted it's difficult to unseat a sitting Congressman and even harder to take down a committee chairman, but said Mayday is excited to find out what kind of impact it can have in this election.
"We're hoping that perhaps we can be a giant killer," McKinnon said.