U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, a Tequesta Republican who Democrats apparently hope will just quit his office (they’ve yet to field an opponent), was put in the crosshairs Wednesday of the latest round of stimulus politics.

Hoping to push back against Republican claims that the stimulus plan isn’t working, the Democratic National Committee released a cable today ad (watch to the right) that targets veteran Republicans who are “playing politics with our economy.”

Rooney, a freshman lawmaker, is not included in the ad, but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee simultaneously sent out this press release questioning Rooney’s commitment to law enforcement:

“Tuesday’s announcement by the Obama Administration of $1 billion to hire and rehire more police officers to keep Florida families safe would not have happened if Representative Tom Rooney had his way. Earlier this year, Rooney said no to the economic recovery package that is now being used to provide these new jobs for police officers and the added safety for Florida families that comes with them.”

Rooney’s spokesman called the release “complete baloney” and said the Republican supports the COPS Hiring Recovery Program, just not the stimulus money used to help pay for it.

“There are a thousand different programs they’re going to pick and say, ‘You don’t support this because you didn’t vote for the stimulus,’” Rooney’s spokesman Jeff Ostermayer said. “What they have to answer is: Where are the jobs they were supposed to create with the stimulus bill?”

Tags: stimulus, Tom Rooney

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 2:51 pm and is filed under 2010 campaigns, Congress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.