Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has a new ad against his challenger in the Republican primary, former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, going after Hayworth for working as a lobbyist after he lost his re-election bid in 2006.
The ad aims to take down Hayworth’s presentation of himself as a Washington outsider, taking on the entrenched incumbent McCain. “Outsider?” the announcer says. “A lobbyist is as inside Washington as it gets.”
In a press release, Hayworth spokesman Mark Sanders shot back at McCain: “Remember he began his career in Washington as a lobbyist when he was appointed in 1976 as the Navy’s liaison to the United States Senate. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black – and I don’t mean Charlie Black or Rick Davis or Mark Buse who are or were high paid lobbyists now running the McCain campaign.”
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers then hit right back in his own release: “It is beyond the pale for Congressman Hayworth to compare his time lobbying his former House colleagues for some special deal on behalf of a Florida company to Senator McCain’s honorable service in the United States Navy. The fact that Congressman Hayworth has the audacity to call into question Senator McCain’s military service shows how desperate he really is. Given Congressman Hayworth’s close ties to the convicted felon lobbyist Jack Abramoff, he should know the difference between serving our country in uniform and profiting from the special interests as a Washington lobbyist.”
The TPM Poll Average gives McCain a lead of 51.2%-37.1%.
