Vermont Gov. Pete Shumlin, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, said Friday the latest campaign ad from Virginia’s GOP gubernatorial candidate, Ken Cuccinelli “opens up a new frontier of slime in American politics” and demanded it be pulled from air.
“Ken Cuccinelli’s campaign has been lobbing desperate and misleading attacks against Terry for months now, but I would argue this new ad has gone over the line and it opens up a new frontier of slime in American politics,” Shumlin said in a conference call with reporters.
The ad in question features workers who were laid off from Global Crossing, a company in which Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe was an investor. It accuses McAuliffe of having “cashed in” when the company went bankrupt and features the workers discussing how they lost their retirement and severance packages.
However, according to a Mother Jones report published Thursday, two of the three workers who appeared in the commercial were told they were participating in a documentary and did not realize it was an ad attacking McAuliffe. One of the three workers told Mother Jones they would not have taken part in the filming if they had been told it was for and ad aimed at McAuliffe.
“Assuming that everything that Mother Jones reports is true, I just am absolutely shocked at this unbelievably deceptive practice and call upon Ken Cuccinelli to pull the ad immediately,” said Shumlin.
Shumlin also urged the Republican Governors Association and its chair, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, to push for the ad’s removal.
“It should be noted that yesterday the Republican Governor’s Association contributed another million to his campaign, so I’m not only calling upon Ken Cuccinelli to pull the ads, I’m also calling upon RGA Chair Gov. Jindal to immediately urge him to do the same,” Shumlin said.
View the ad below.