Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group with links to the billionaire co-owner of industrial giant Koch Industries, has launched an ad attacking Democratic Rep. Zack Space of Ohio for voting in favor of climate change legislation.
The group is a Virginia-based 501©(4) tax-exempt organization dedicated to limited government. Americans for Prosperity spent just over $100,000 on the new 30-second ad, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission.
The television ad shows pictures of Space and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on playing cards labeled “Joker.” The narrator refers to the 2009 bill to limit climate change “Washington’s global warming poker game.” The ad claims that “the Space-Pelosi utility tax will cost taxpayers more than $800 billion [and] kill 82,000 Ohio jobs.”
Space was one of 211 Democrats and 8 Republicans who voted for the bill in June 2009. The Senate never took up the legislation. Space is a two-term congressman and represents Zanesville and a largely rural area of Ohio.
Mary Ellen Burke, a spokeswoman for Americans for Prosperity, told the Center that the ad will be aired through Oct. 27 and that the group does not plan additional ads targeting Space. When asked, she declined to disclose the organization’s donors — 501©(4) groups need not identify their funders publicly.
The Space campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Ad Title: “Tell Zack Space No New Energy Taxes”
Paid for By: Americans for Prosperity
Cost: $100,050
Disclaimer: Americans for Prosperity paid for and is responsible for the content of this advertising. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. www.americansforprosperity.org