Politics

NRSC launches new ad attacking King on wind turbines

Alexis Levinson Political Reporter
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The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) went up with a third ad attacking independent Senate candidate Angus King for his role in the wind energy business on Tuesday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqYNxMvRssA

The ad is a longer version of an ad that began running Friday, entitled “Smooth Operator,” and the new ad includes some of the same footage. It features five people criticizing King and the wind turbines that were erected in Maine by a company King had a stake in.

“We all need to get used to seeing turbines where we used to seeing ridges, is what Angus King told us,” says the first man, sitting outside with the windmills on the ridgeline behind him.

The script of the ad follows:

First woman: “Angus has been involved in energy matters even before he became governor, and he knows that there’s is money to be made.”

Second woman: “You can’t fight these corporations.”

Second man: “I think he’s willing to say anything to get people on board.”

First man: “Angus King is a smooth operator.”

First woman: “I think that what happened here was atrocious.”

Third man: “I couldn’t contemplate them blasting the mountain the way they were doing.”

First man: “As you watched these towers go up one after the other, you couldn’t help but feel a huge sense of loss.”

Second woman: “And we’re not going to retrieve the tops of those mountains.”

First woman: “It’s just something that’s been taken away forever.”

First man: “We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg of these wind projects in Maine.”

“I don’t come up much. I just stay home,” concludes the second man, who an NRSC official said is a longtime Maine property owner who has a second home near the windmills. “I just don’t like the idea of him being our Senator. I just think it’s wrong.”

The original ad was only thirty seconds long – this one is 60 seconds – and featured the same five people. They are not identified, but the NRSC official noted that at least three are residents who live in the area where they are directly affected by the sight of the turbines.

It is the third ad in a $650,000 buy by the NRSC that will rotate on the air in Maine.

King objected to the original 30-second ad, which said that he had gotten “a sweetheart deal on his windmills” and that he “was making millions and millions of dollars” off the project — things he said was not true. His campaign filed formal complaints with the television station, and said that they would take legal action if necessary. King also launched a rebuttal ad that featured Mainers who live in the area of the windmills praising them. The NRSC defended their ad.

King’s campaign did not respond immediately to request for comment.

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