A super PAC will begin running an ad against Utah Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson at the end of the week, attacking his vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act earlier this year.
Matheson voted against the health care reform law when it was first passed, but in 2011 he voted against a full repeal of the law.
Citing his January 19, 2011 vote against overturning the law, the ad asks, “If you were in Congress, would you vote against ObamaCare?”
“Democratic Congressman Jim Matheson worked with Nancy Pelosi and President Obama to keep ObamaCare,” the ad says.
The ad is being run by It’s Now or Never Inc., a super PAC that is focusing on “focusing on fiscally conservative issues, and specifically candidates who are supportive of a national balanced budget amendment,” executive director Jason Smith explained to The Daily Caller.
Right now, the group is focused on House and Senate candidates in Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Texas and New Mexico, but Smith said the super PAC hopes to expand beyond that.
The size of the ad buy has not yet been determined, according to Smith, but it is expected to begin running on Thursday or Friday.
Matheson faces a tough race in the heavily Republican, newly created 4th Congressional District. He remains popular in the state, despite being a Democrat in a very red state. In Congress, he has voted with Republicans on several issues – including recently, when he voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt.
Currently, he has a solid lead over his opponent, Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love, 53 percent to 38 percent, according to a Deseret News/KSL-TV poll conducted in June.
But Love could prove a formidable opponent. Love would be the first black Republican woman elected to Congress, a fact that has generated a lot of attention. Love earned the endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s wife Ann on Sunday.
“If I were Jim Matheson, I would be scared to death if Mia were the Republican nominee,” Utah political consultant Doug Foxley told TheDC in March, before Love won the Republican primary.
Matheson can look forward to more ads from the super PAC as the campaign heats up.
“This is just the beginning,” Smith said. “Obviously as voters start to pay more attention for the race, we’ll continue to focus in on it as well.”
