The national political parties are now trading Spanish-language radio ads in Nevada, a state with a key Senate race between appointed Republican Sen. Dean Heller and Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley — and the Dem ad is bringing in a whole other name from the last election cycle.
As the Las Vegas Sun reports, the National Republican Senatorial Committee began running a radio ad going after the Obama administration and Berkley. The ad focuses on the recent controversies from the contraceptive health insurance mandate — though it should be noted that the ad does not specifically mention contraception as the issue in question, instead only saying that the government is demanding that that the Catholic Church pay for things it is again.
“Obama and Berkley want to force the Catholic Church and Americans of faith to abandon their religious dogma, mandating the church pay for medical procedures and drugs that go against their beliefs,” the female announcer says in Spanish. “And if the church doesn’t obey? The Obama-Berkley law sanctions them, forcing them to pay fines for doing simply what they think is right. It is a direct attack against religious freedom.”
In turn, Berkley and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have their own Spanish radio ad, tying Heller on immigration issues to the ultimate Nevada bugbear: Sharron Angle, the very right-wing GOP Senate nominee in 2010, who lost to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid despite the national Republican wave.
“The party of Sharron Angle, but this time, in Spanish! Can you believe it?” the announcer says mockingly. “The Republicans have ads that attack Democratic Congresswoman Shelley Berkley and President Obama, who support the Dream Act and immigration reform.
“Who is their candidate now? Dean Heller: the Republican who wants to copy the anti-immigrant Arizona law here in Nevada, who voted to cut funds to Head Start and student scholarships, who is against immigration reform and would deport grandparents and separate children from their mothers.”
She also adds: “In the Republican Dean Heller we have another Sharron Angle.”