“Viewer Discretion Is Advised,” “Latest Round In A Slugfest,” & “The Tit-For-Tat Is Headspinning:” Republican Senate Primaries Turn “Brutal”

Infighting Ratchets Up in GA, PA, NC and OH GOP Senate Primaries

A wave of news coverage across battleground states is highlighting “increasingly intense lines of attack” in GOP Senate primaries – as candidates and PACs launch “brutal” attack ads, commit “to spending more,” and continue “attacking each other’s professional backgrounds and previous comments” “in a slugfest” that “is already head-spinning” and only just “​​starting to intensify.”

See for yourself:

GA – Atlanta Journal Constitution: The Jolt (March 16, 2022). Herschel Walker’s closest rival, Gary Black, has a new digital attack ad opening with the bleak advisory, “Warning: Viewer Discretion is Advised.”

• What follows is a litany of reports documented in the AJC and other outlets that will surely be weaponized against Walker by U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock in a general election campaign.

• They include accusations that Walker physically abused and threatened his ex-wife, mistress and other women, along with a claim that he’s “hiding” from tough questions from the media.

• “We have to wonder, how many more women are out there? And what stories might they tell? Now, ask yourself, are you still thinking about voting for Herschel Walker?”

• See Black’s new site here.

GA – Matt Holt, National Journal (@MattHolt33): #GASen: Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black (R) drops a lot of oppo on former NFL running back Herschel Walker (R). The two minute video you watch when opening this website is brutal realherschel.com

PA – New York Times: McCormick Faces Scrutiny Over Hedge Fund’s Handling of Teacher Pensions. Before he entered Pennsylvania’s Senate race, David McCormick oversaw a giant hedge fund that invested billions of dollars for the retirement plans of the state’s teachers. But Mr. McCormick’s company, Bridgewater Associates, delivered such middling profits and charged such high fees that the Pennsylvania teachers’ retirement fund moved to sell off its Bridgewater holdings beginning two years ago.

• On Tuesday, Mr. McCormick’s chief Republican rival, the celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, sought to use those high fees and Mr. McCormick’s decade on top of Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund, against him.

• “We’re stuck with a half-a-billion-dollar bill while he and his colleagues got half a billion in fees,” Dr. Oz said outside the Harrisburg headquarters of the pension fund, the Public School Employees Retirement System, known as PSERS. He addressed a small group of supporters with a large prop check made out for $500 million.

• “The fact that no one knows this story,” he added, is “shameful.”

• The dispute is the latest round in a slugfest between Mr. McCormick and Dr. Oz.

PA – Philadelphia Inquirer: GOP Senate candidate Mehmet Oz says his opponent’s hedge fund cost Pa. taxpayers. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz on Tuesday sought to attack… David McCormick for his role in leading a hedge fund that made hundreds of millions of dollars from the embattled Pennsylvania school pension fund, PSERS.

• “Rich people on Wall Street continue to charge us and make money whatever happens,” said Oz who spoke on the sidewalk across from PSERS’s midrise building, accompanied by several teachers and a small-business owner.

• The Oz event came as he and McCormick have engaged in a brutal primary fight, attacking each other’s professional backgrounds and previous comments on issues such as abortion, guns, and China.

• Oz’s response signals the increasingly intense lines of attack between the two front-runners for the GOP nomination.

• It’s also another attempt by Oz to turn McCormick’s time leading Bridgewater into a liability, after previously attacking McCormick over the company’s major investments in China.

PA – PennLive: Dr. Mehmet Oz opens a new line of attack against Pa. Senate rival David McCormick: Money. ​​Millionaires traded blows in Pennsylvania’s hotly-contested Republican U.S. Senate primary Tuesday as Dr. Mehmet Oz attacked one of his top rivals, recently-retired hedge fund leader David McCormick, for overseeing what Oz called sub-par performance on investments for the Public School Employees Retirement System that, by Oz’s formula, have lead to higher property taxes for Pennsylvanians.

• In Oz’s formulation, Bridgewater Associates got rich and taxpayers got hosed.

PA – Jonathan Tamari, Philadelphia Inquirer (@JonathanTamari): It’s gonna be a looooong 2 months in this PA GOP Senate primary.

The daily tit-for-tat is already head-spinning.

NC – The North State Journal: Club for Growth launches $10 million in ad spending for US Senate primary. The Club for Growth, a Washington, D.C.-based conservative organization, announced it was increasing its spending to boost U.S. Rep. Ted Budd in the state’s competitive 2022 Republican U.S. Senate primary.

• The Club for Growth’s political arm has already spent $4 million backing Budd.

• McCrory’s campaign has attacked Budd on foreign policy, accusing the three-term congressman of being “soft” on Russia and Vladimir Putin.

NC – WNCN: ​​New ads highlight NC Senate candidates’ comments on Putin. A super PAC supporting Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ted Budd is pushing back on recent attacks by former Gov. Pat McCrory.

• McCrory has criticized Budd and recently started running his first TV ad, saying Budd “excused” Putin and adding that “we need serious senators.”

• Club for Growth, which has committed to spending more than $10 million in North Carolina’s primary to help get Budd elected, posted an ad Tuesday in response to McCrory, accusing him of a “hit job.”

• Jordan Shaw, an advisor to McCrory, said he was “thrilled” with the new Club for Growth ad. “This is a great ad for Pat McCrory – let’s hope they keep reminding voters how inconsistent and unelectable Congressman Budd is and how he has gone out of his way – time and time again – to compliment a mass murderer,” he wrote in an email.

NC – Spectrum: Republican Senate primary in N.C. heats up. Former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory released his first television ad last week criticizing fellow Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Ted Budd for how he recently described Russian president Vladimir Putin.

OH – Associated Press: Russia business deals muddy GOP US Senate primary in Ohio. Conservative PACs, mostly backing Republican Josh Mandel in the race, pilloried Timken in attack ads as “shameless” for outwardly supporting Ukraine and calling for tough sanctions on Russia while making money off her investments in the company.

• After Timken criticized Vance for voicing indifference to the fate of Ukraine in the days leading up to the invasion, a Vance ally tweeted: “No candidate has business ties in Russia except for Jane Timken. Her husband’s company has provided steel for their tanks, rail, and military.” The attacks continued from the left, with one labor union ally trying to label Timken “Russia Jane.”

• Lost in the ad attacks against Timken is the fact that their intended beneficiary, Mandel, has taken thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Timken family members, employees and PACs over the years.

OH – Washington Examiner: Leading Republicans vying to become Ohio’s next senator spar over abortion. Businessman Mike Gibbons, who has captured the lead in recent polling, cut an ad last Thursday bashing rival Josh Mandel for “flip-flopping” on abortion as he tries to stave off flak for supposedly being “squishy” on abortion in the past.

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