TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Justin Barasky, Communications Director
DATE: June 30, 2015
RE: Kelly Ayotte’s Record Of Looking Out For Special Interests Instead Of New Hampshire has GOP Terrified of Her Reelection Prospects
In a stunning admission of fear regarding her reelection prospects, New Hampshire’s vulnerable Senator Kelly Ayotte is officially launching her re-election effort more than 16 months before Election Day.
Republicans Are Terrified Ayotte Will Lose
Dark money groups run by Karl Rove and Kelly Ayotte’s former campaign manager have already launched six different attacks ads to try to prop up Ayotte.
Here are just a few of the reasons why Republicans are terrified about Ayotte losing:
- Ayotte’s favorability (and net favorability) are 10 points worse than Senator Shaheen’s were at this point in the 2014 cycle.
- Since 1996, Democrats have won 10 New Hampshire statewide races during a presidential year. Republicans have won just 3.
- Ayotte has already replaced her first campaign manager amid controversy over lying about filming a veterans forum. Senator Shaheendidn’t even name a campaign manager until more than six months later in the 2014 cycle.
But the biggest reason Republics are terrified Kelly Ayotte is going to lose? Her record of putting special interests first while turning her back on New Hampshire’s families and businesses.
Kelly Ayotte Has Turned Her Back On The Priorities And Values That Matter to New Hampshire’s Families And Small Businesses
Ayotte has put special interests before New Hampshire’s people and businesses, including working to roll back Wall Street reform legislation and protecting special tax breaks for big oil companies and companies that send U.S. jobs overseas:
- Worked to protect Wall Street, her top campaign contributor, by voting to roll back Wall Street reform and supporting a pro-Wall Streetattack on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that has fielded more than 2,000 complaints from New Hampshire consumers.
- Voted twice to protect tens of billions of dollars in special tax breaks for big oil and gas companies, another of her top campaign contributors.
- Repeatedly voted with her party to protect tax breaks that reward corporations that send U.S. jobs overseas despite the fact that New Hampshire has lost more jobs to China than any other state.
Ayotte has toed the party line at the expense of New Hampshire’s families and businesses:
- Voted with her party multiple times against raising the minimum wage and ensuring paycheck fairness.
- Supported GOP budgets that would turn Medicare into a voucher system and voted against protecting Social Security from benefit cuts and from being privatized.
- Voted to cut Pell grants by nearly $90 billion, affecting 23,000 New Hampshire students.
- Voted against a measure allowing young people to refinance their student loans, which would have helped 129,000 Granite Staters.
- Voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would increase the price of prescription drugs, allow insurance companies to discriminate against women, and repeal health care from tens of thousands of Granite Staters.
Ayotte has shown a willingness to play politics with national security and public safety, placing New Hampshire communities at risk:
- Pushed the Department of Homeland Security to the brink of shutdown, placing New Hampshire communities at risk.
- Signed the reckless Iran letter, weakening U.S. foreign policy to try to score cheap political points.
- Voted against a commonsense background check proposal supported by nearly 90% of New Hampshire adults.
Ayotte has consistently supported efforts to limit access to women’s health care:
- Believes that Roe v. Wade, which guarantees a woman’s right to choose, should be overturned.
- Co-sponsored the Blunt Amendment, which would have allowed employers to deny coverage of birth control and preventive care like mammograms.
- Voted to defund Planned Parenthood and supported allowing bosses to deny women insurance that covers their full health needs.
Bottom line: No matter how much dark money her special interest allies dump into the race, Kelly Ayotte won’t be able to hide the fact she’s turned her back on New Hampshire. Kelly Ayotte is in trouble.
