Guthrie among GOP members targeted by DCCC over stimulus package vote

U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, a Bowling Green Republican who began his first term in Congress last month, is among a group of GOP lawmakers targeted in a round of radio ads offered by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to the Washington Post. 

Chris Cillizza with the paper’s “The Fix” blog is reporting that the ads are running in 28 GOP-held House districts and are “aimed at scoring political points for the vote last week on Obama’s economic stimulus package.”

That vote fell strictly along party lines, with Republican lawmakers voting against it. 

DCCC executive director Brian Wolff told Cillizza that “Republicans’ champagne wishes and caviar dreams simply don’t connect with middle class families struggling to make ends meet and furious that their tax dollars are going to bail out banks, build schools in Iraq, or send American jobs overseas.”

Glenn Thrush with Politico.com also has the story, and reports that the DCCC is using a variety of ads to target GOP lawmakers, and has samples of each ad along with which lawmaker was targeted by which ad.  

From Politico.com, a sample ad using U.S. Rep. Christoper Lee of New York – 

The following ad is the districts of Representatives Michele Bachmann (MN-06), Brian Bilbray (CA-50), Joseph Cao (LA-02), Bill Cassidy (LA-06), John Fleming (LA-04), Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Leonard Lance (NJ-07), Christopher Lee (NY-26), Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-09), and Tom Rooney (FL-16):

“Did you know Congressman Christopher Lee voted against economic recovery to immediately create and save over 390,000 New York jobs? Times are tough, tell Christopher Lee to put families before politics.”

Update, 10:10 p.m. …

Here is the official release from the DCCC about the ad campaign, called “Putting Families First.”

And a bit more from Politico.com –

But many of the other members are untraditional targets, like Reps. Henry Brown (R-S.C.), John Fleming (R-La.), Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.), Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.). All these members hold solidly Republican seats, and aren’t expected to face tough races next year. 

There are certainly reasons to target members who, at first glance, appear to be safe in 2010. Several are freshmen who haven’t yet proven their viability in their home districts. Others won by surprisingly narrow margins last year. And the ads serve as a warning sign to House veterans like Bartlett (or Rep. Bill Young, another target), who could get caught napping if they’re not careful. 

Still, the fact that the DCCC is targeting Republicans in districts that have usually been afterthoughts for Democrats, suggests that this will be a cycle where the party will mostly be playing defense – and focusing on consolidating their gains over the past two election cycles.