McSally Caught Featuring Former Paid Staffer in Ad, Doesn’t Disclose to Arizonans

McSally Once Again Misleading Arizonans About Her Record of Voting to Gut Pre-Existing Conditions Coverage and Other Protections

Unelected Senator Martha McSally was caught featuring a former staffer in a new ad that does not disclose the individual was paid nearly $400,000 for work in her Congressional office and on her political campaigns. It’s another example of McSally’s strategy to mislead Arizonans about her unpopular record of repeatedly voting to gut pre-existing conditions coverage and other health care benefits, a central reason she lost the election in 2018. 

Ironically, McSally released the ad nearly three-years to the day when she cheered “let’s get this f*cking thing done” and voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including pre-existing conditions protections. The shady ad earned McSally a round of blistering local reviews, with one op-ed asserting that “failing to mention her employment is disingenuous, at best.”

“Unelected Senator Martha McSally was the first Arizona Republican in 30 years to lose a Senate race because of the votes she took to gut pre-existing conditions protections and then lying to Arizonans about it,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “This ad is more of the same and just another reason Arizonans don’t trust her to be honest or protect their health care.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Arizona Republic: McSally ad features health care testimonial from her former aide, doesn’t disclose ties

April 30, 2020

Key Points:

• Sen. Martha McSally has a new campaign ad featuring a cancer survivor who talks about how her “path collided” with McSally, whom she describes as a champion for protecting those with pre-existing medical conditions.

• The emotional television ad, which started Thursday, doesn’t disclose that the woman worked for McSally’s congressional office and as a campaign staffer over the years or that in 2014 she helped defend McSally’s attacks on the Affordable Care Act and roll its coverage protections back.

• The one-minute ad is a testimonial intended to blunt a major attack line against McSally by her Democratic opponent Mark Kelly and his allies against her repeated votes as a member of the House of Representatives to undo, tweak or roll back the 2010 health care law implemented by President Barack Obama and Democrats. 

• McSally voted for the GOP-backed American Health Care Act, which allowed insurers to charge those with pre-existing conditions higher premiums, which the Affordable Care Act prohibited. The AHCA prohibited insurance companies from denying people coverage for having pre-existing conditions.

• Douglas has earned at least $381,000 for her work with McSally in various capacities throughout the years, according to figures tracked by the Federal Election Commission and the website LegiStorm.com.

• In 2014, Douglas managed McSally’s House race and helped her champion her position on the Affordable Care Act. At the time, Douglas described the law to The Republic’s fact-check team as “an experiment in social engineering that discourages genuine competition, is funded by mandates, penalties and taxes.” 

• Douglas later worked as McSally’s deputy chief of staff in the House from January 2015 through August 2017. She most recently worked as a consultant during McSally’s 2018 unsuccessful run for the Senate.

Read the full story here.

Arizona Republic (Opinion): Shady campaign ad for Sen. Martha McSally uses former employee paid $381,000

By EJ Montini

April 30, 2020

Key Points: 

• For years Republican Sen. Martha McSally has had a problem trying to defend her many attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, including its protections for those with pre-existing conditions.

• During her losing campaign against Democrat Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, McSally was constantly under fire, correctly so, for pushing to have the ACA dismantled. Not only did McSally vote for such a plan, she was quoted as urging her Republican colleagues to pass it with the fiery profane admonition: “Let’s get this f-ing thing done!”

• McSally attempts to defend herself by pointing to her vote for American Health Care Act, which prohibited insurance companies from denying people coverage for having pre-existing conditions.

• The problem is that the bill would have allowed states to eliminate a ban on high-priced premiums for people with preexisting conditions. A big jump in those premiums would have forced many to lose coverage. And the so-called “high-risk pools” that were to be created, and that the Republicans said would help such people, wouldn’t have had enough funding to do so.

• Now McSally is again trying to defend her stance against the ACA, most recently with an ad meant to defend her commitment to protecting people with pre-existing conditions.

• There is an emotional testimonial in the ad from a woman named Kristen Douglas, who praises McSally.

• What she does not say, but which is revealed in an article by The Arizona Republic’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, is that Douglas has earned at least $381,000 for her work with McSally in various capacities.

Read the full op-ed here.

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