The so-called political independent featured in the latest attack ad from Priorities USA Action is a wealthy Democrat-supporting business owner who hosted a 2010 campaign kick-off party for the state’s top Democratic legislator, Senate President Therese Murray.
“Last night, I had the distinct pleasure of introducing Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray at her re-election campaign kick-off fundraiser,” according to a blog post by Olive Chase, the business owner featured in the attack ad.
“Terry and I have been friends for a long time and have done great work together … [and] is a strong advocate of health insurance reform, a very important issue for me, as a small business owner,” she wrote in May 21, 2010.
“With speeches, schmoozing, great food and almost every elected Democrat in the state, the night could not have gone better! Go Terry!” wrote Chase, who is the latest fake Republican-leaning voter to be used in Democratic ad campaigns.
During the event, Chase told a reporter for the Caper Cod Times that Murray is a “friend to all business owners on Cape Cod.”
Chase operates a string of restaurants and a wedding-planning firm in Providence, Mass., whose business has grown following the legalization of same-sex marriage in the state.
The attack ad, released Aug. 28, shows Chase claiming that “I’m an independent. I voted for [Gov. Mitt Romney], I contributed to him … Gov. Romney cares about big business, he cares about tax cuts for wealthy people.”
“I feel like I was duped by Mitt Romney. I’m going to vote for President Obama,” Chase says.
The ad is the first in a series which Priorities USA Action say will be broadcast in many states at a cost of $30 million.
Public databases do not show that Chase has donated to Obama. However, she donated $1,000 in April 2012 to her local representative, Democrat Bill Keating.
The deceptive ad comes shortly after Priorities USA damaged its own cause by promoting a deceptive video aimed at Romney.
The video showed a retired union leader at a steel plant, Joe Soptic, suggesting that Romney was responsible for — and uncaring about — the lethal cancer that killed Soptic’s wife several years after Romney’s firm had closed the money-losing steel plant.
Romney was not at Bain Capital when the investment firm closed down Soptic’s employer. Soptic retired and landed another job. His wife had health insurance for several years via her own job, and was dead within a few weeks of being diagnosed with end-stage cancer.
Scoptic’s claim was also promoted by President Barack Obama’s campaign aides.
When the ad backfired by prompting much media criticism of the Obama campaign, those aides temporarily denied any knowledge of Soptic’s claim.
The Olive Chase flub also comes a few days after right-of-center bloggers discovered that two of five women featured in an Obama campaign video were partisan Democrats, rather than recent Republicans.
The 157-second video, titled “Republican Women for Obama,” featured Maria Ciano, and her mother Delia Ciano, a registered Democrat.
Watch:
http://www.youtube.com/user/prioritiesUSAaction?feature=watch