UPDATE: First Democratic ad, released in April, is here

In what could be the first television ad of the 2010 U.S. Senate Republican primary, Club for Growth, the conservative group that helped take down the Republican candidate in an upstate New York Congressional race, has unveiled a new television spot aimed at Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who is facing a primary challenge from former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

The club has not officially picked sides in the race, but this is clearly the strongest signal of several in recent months that they favor Rubio. The group could provide Rubio a needed boost in fundraising against Crist.

The group said the 30-second spot “will air soon on Florida television stations.”

Fact check after the jump.

Transcript:
VIDEO OF CRIST: “We know it’s important that we pass a stimulus package.”

NARRATOR: Since Charlie Crist helped pass Barack Obama’s spending program, nearly 200,000 Floridians have lost their jobs. Unemployment is the highest in decades. Personal income is down. And the deficit in Washington is three times larger.

CRIST: “We know it’s important that we pass a stimulus package.”

NARRATOR: Tell Governor Crist to work on fixing Florida’s economy, not passing more debt to our children.

Crist is airing a radio spot on AM radio in the state, but this looks like it could be the first television ad in the primary race. The message echoes the central theme of Rubio’s campaign so far: that Crist is not a true Republican because he supported Obama during debate over stimulus package.

Crist did support the proposal, despite his Crist’s claims to the contrary (here and here). But it’s also a fact that the Republican-led state House and Senate spent almost every available stimulus dollar in the state budget. And as we post this blog, Crist and Republican leaders trying to craft an agreement that would bring the legislature back to Tallahassee before the end of the year for a special session aimed at positioning the state for even more stimulus money.

Unemployment in Florida is the highest its been in decades and personal income is down, some of the other figures in the ad are a little exaggerated.

The narrator claims that 200,000 Floridians have lost their job since Crist appeared with Obama. That’s a little high. According to the state Agency for Workforce Innovation, 874,000 Flordians were out of work in February. In September, the most recent numbers available, that number was 1.012 million, a net increase of 138,000.

The federal budget deficit is at an all-time high of $1.42 trillion, but that’s tripled in the past year - not the past nine months. In fact, the Obama triple what it was last year. In February, the Obama administration was predicting the deficit would reach $1.75 trillion. From the Associated Press economics writer last month:

Government spending last year jumped to $3.52 trillion, up 18.2 percent over 2008, the biggest percentage increase since a 23.4 percent jump in 1975, another year in which the country was struggling with a painful recession. The $700 billion financial bailout fund and increased spending and tax relief from the $787 billion economic stimulus program that Obama pushed through Congress in February drove the 2009 increase.

Tags: ad watch, Charlie Crist, Club For Growth, fact check, Marco Rubio, television ads

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 11:47 am and is filed under 2010 campaigns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.