In one TV ad, a serious-sounding woman talks about how Angela Alsobrooks “dodged” thousands of dollars’ worth of property tax payments. In another ad, another serious-sounding woman declares: “We can’t trust Larry Hogan on abortion.”
These television ads and others — as well radio, web and social media video ads — are impossible to miss in Maryland’s hotly-contested U.S. Senate race between Democrat Alsobrooks and Republican Hogan. They’re playing during NFL games and on evening newscasts, or over the radio on your commute to work — and some are being pinged directly to cell phones via text message.
The most prominent ads in this election cycle are not from the candidates themselves, but from an array of interest groups and political action committees that are spending in Maryland like never before.
Outside groups have previously played a part in Maryland elections, but this election they are pouring millions of dollars into the Senate race, continuing the massive spending to win the seat that began during the Democratic primary.
With mail ballots already in the hands of hundreds of thousands of Maryland voters, and in-person voting coming in less than three weeks, the ads funded by outside groups are popping up so quickly that it’s difficult to tally the total spending. OpenSecrets, which tracks campaign spending, ranked the more than $18 million spent as of Friday afternoon by outside groups in Maryland’s Senate race among the top 10 of all Senate and House races.
The reason for the ad spending is clear: Maryland’s race between Hogan and Alsobrooks could help determine which party has control of power in the U.S. Senate. With control comes the ability to set the nation’s agenda, such as protecting or restricting abortion, changing gun laws or setting tax rates.
Maryland might not have the closest Senate race in the nation — recent polls show Alsobrooks with an advantage — but it’s competitive enough to draw interest from D.C. and beyond.
Candidates complain
Both candidates have criticized outside spending in the race, even though they’re both benefiting from it. Political action committees are barred from coordinating with candidates’ campaigns, but the candidates are well aware of the spending that’s being done to help or hurt their chances.
Speaking at a recent bull roast fundraiser in Bowleys Quarters, Hogan referenced the commercials.
“You see, my opponent has all of these far-left groups that are spending tens of millions of dollars for months on end, attacking us with all these crazy commercials,” Hogan told the crowd.
Hogan, a former two-term governor, lamented an ad that says he got into the race at the behest of Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader. Hogan said it was really his wife, Yumi Hogan, who convinced him to run.
One day earlier, Alsobrooks was on MSNBC pointing out the money being spent on ads to help Hogan.
Hogan, Alsobrooks said, is on “the same team” as Republican leaders in Washington.
“It’s the reason why we’ve seen … 18 million additional dollars by his billionaire Republican friends who, likewise, recognize he’s on their team, and that electing him hands over control of the Senate to the Republican Party — to Lindsey Graham and Rick Scott and Ted Cruz,” said Alsobrooks, currently the Prince George’s County executive.
Even though both candidates are benefiting from the outside money, Democrats say it matters where the money is coming from. On a call with reporters recently, Democratic leaders decried the out-of-state, wealthy businessmen who are funding Maryland’s Future, the super PAC running anti-Alsobrooks ads hammering her on her property tax problem.
The funders of Maryland’s Future include Kenneth Griffin, a hedge fund founder and Republican mega-donor who dropped $10 million into the super PAC. Another famous donor is Harlan Crow, the real estate executive who paid for trips for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Those donors have a vested interest in seeing a Republican majority in the Senate to advance conservative policies, and Hogan’s presence in the Senate would advance that cause, said Ken Ulman, chair of the Maryland Democratic Party.
“Larry Hogan is twisting himself like a gymnast to try to convince the voters of Maryland that he is somehow going to be an independent,” Ulman said. Meanwhile, these donors “know Larry Hogan is a lifelong Republican who will caucus with Republicans. That is what they are buying.”
Claims on abortion, taxes, Social Security
Outside groups can play a unique role in boosting their favored candidate’s campaign. While the candidate may focus on positive, glowing ads, an outside group is more likely to put out attack ads on the opponent — and because there isn’t supposed to be coordination between the two, the candidate can claim that they are staying positive. For the outside spending tracked by OpenSecrets as of Friday afternoon, almost 85% of the ads attacked a candidate rather than supporting one.
Maryland voters can expect to see the negative ads from PACs continue as Election Day draws closer, said Danilo Yanich, a public policy professor at the University of Delaware who studies media and politics.
“Even when candidates are critical, that drops off as you get closer to the election, and the negative ads of the PACs rise as you get closer to the election,” Yanich said. “Which makes perfect sense: You don’t want folks identifying you as a negative person ... You would rather have someone else say that about your opponent.”
The anti-Alsobrooks ad from the Maryland’s Future super PAC combines two attacks on Alsobrooks: The property tax breaks that she improperly received and has pledged to pay back, and a claim that she would “raise Social Security taxes.”
Maryland’s Future is reported to be spending at least $18 million on ads to boost Hogan’s election chances.
The tax-themed, anti-Alsobrooks ad was sent via text message to many Maryland voters, with an accompanying message that concluded: “Higher taxes for MD, illegal tax breaks for her. Vote NO.”
The ad seeks to capitalize on the negative news stories about Alsobrooks, and adds in a confusing claim about her policies. The ad could be interpreted to suggest that Alsobrooks wants to put a tax on Social Security payments; her campaign says that what she actually supports is having the highest income-earners pay more to fund Social Security. Currently, people pay no additional Social Security taxes on any earnings above $168,600.
Meanwhile, the anti-Hogan ad on abortion comes from Women Vote, an arm of Emily’s List, the national group that works to elect Democratic women to office. The serious narration is interspersed with news clips of Hogan talking about his personal opposition to abortion.
The spending on the ad brings Emily’s List’s expenditures in Maryland up to $4.3 million to help Alsobrooks win the general election.
Alsobrooks has also been the beneficiary of anti-Hogan ads focusing on his statements on abortion funded by Win Senate, a super PAC founded earlier this year that is funded by the Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC. Win Senate also published a website — whatishoganhiding.com — to criticize his record and statements as governor.
And last week, the Senate Majority PAC, which is affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, got directly involved in the race, launching $1.1 million worth of ads to help Alsobrooks, according to a report from Axios.
Alsobrooks and Hogan have also benefited from spending by their party’s committees that are dedicated to winning seats in the Senate, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, respectively.
Yanich said the PAC ads, particularly negative ones, have proliferated due to a couple of reasons. First, the political parties in power in Congress have only “insecure majorities” — meaning their margin of power is so slim that both major parties fight intensely for every single seat that could put them in power or keep them there.
And then court decisions, particularly the 2010 case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, have allowed unlimited donations to PACs. That’s created a political communications system that allows people with big bank accounts to buy time on the airwaves to influence elections.
In short, Yanich said, people use PACs to push a political agenda because they can — and that doesn’t appear likely to change any time soon.
“If you want to influence the political system, and the political system gives you an unlimited capacity to affect the political system, you will do it,” he said.
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