Pay equity — it’s not just for presidential debates. The PAC associated with EMILY’s List is going on air with an ad in the Nevada Senate race targeting Sen. Dean Heller (R) over his vote agains the Lilly Ledbetter Act while a member of Congress in 2009. Many Republicans opposed the Ledbetter Act, which was the first bill signed into law by President Obama.
EMILY’s List says the pay equity message resonates in Nevada, and their new ad hints at how Ledbetter could play in swing states like Nevada following Tuesday night’s debate. The Romney campaign has strugged with the Ledbetter Act since Presdient Obama brought it up in the debate, saying the candidate has no position on whether or not it should have become law but promising not to repeal it now that it is.
“When we talked to independent women this summer, they were absolutely outraged to hear that in 2012, Republicans were opposing equal pay legislation,” Jess McIntosh, spokesperson for EMILY’s List, told TPM. “I can’t repeat many of their responses in a family publication – but my favorite was ‘what is this, the dark ages?'”
The new ad aims that kind of frustration right at Heller.
“I don’t know even how to verbalize that in the year 2012, Dean Heller would be voting, or that we would be discussing equal pay for equal work,” Cindy Funkhouser, a Nevada businessowner, says in the ad.
