Pennsylvania

An ad supporting Conor Lamb sparked a backlash for wrongly calling John Fetterman a ‘self-described democratic socialist’


by Julia Terruso
Updated Apr 7, 2022

A super PAC backing U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb’s Democratic campaign for Senate in Pennsylvania made its first real foray into the race this week — and it didn’t go well. The group, Penn Progress, launched an attack ad that wrongly called Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic front-runner, a “self-described democratic socialist,” drawing ire from national Democrats and rebukes from fact-checkers.

Within a day of the ad airing, PolitiFact and Factcheck.org called it false, a Philadelphia TV station took it off the air, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) called on Lamb to disavow it. Perhaps most alarming for Lamb, the campaign arm for Senate Democrats, which was already seen as likely to stay on the sidelines in the primary, signaled it won’t get involved in a race where Lamb badly needs to change the dynamic.

Taken together, the developments underscored how the window for Lamb, underfunded and behind in the polls, is closing fast ahead of the May 17 primary. “The hope is that the ad sparks positive publicity … but by being sloppy in how they made the ad, Lamb’s super PAC shot itself in the foot,” said J.J. Balaban, a Philadelphia-based Democratic strategist. The 30-second spot aims to paint Fetterman as a socialist who would be a risky candidate for Democrats in the general election.

The PAC behind it, led by veteran Democratic strategists including James Carville, is trying to raise big money to help Lamb bridge yawning deficits in fund-raising and campaign surveys. The group has put $800,000 behind airing the ad so far in the Philadelphia, Wilkes-Barre, and Pittsburgh media markets, according to AdImpact, which tracks political advertising. And the ad made a big splash — just likely not in the way the group intended.

https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/conor-lamb-super-pac-ad-john-fetterman-20220407.html