Democrats Target Republican Candidates On Social Security

Buy an ad on DigitalJournal.com

Democratic House and Senate candidates are using a familiar issue to attack Republicans: Social Security. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is airing many radio and TV ads attacking their Republican opponents for agreeing in the past with President Bush's failed attempt to privatize Social Security.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is the chairman of the DCCC. This organization is responsible for getting Democrats elected to the House and incumbents to keep their seats from Republican challengers. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has the same duties related to the Senate.

Van Hollen appeared on C-SPAN's Newsmakers program on Sunday. Politico.com quotes him in regard to him linking Republican incumbent congressman with Bush's Social Security privatization plan: ''What we have seen as a result of this meltdown in the financial markets is that people's future retirement savings are put at risk...and there are many members of Congress on the Republican side that supported the Bush Social Security privatization plan. It's a very fair question to say if your Republican incumbent member of Congress supported Social Security privatization, what does that say about the risk they're willing to take with your retirement?''

The DCCC has spent roughly $888,000 in ads attacking six Republican House candidates and two Senate incumbents.

One ad depicts Missouri Republican challenger Blaine Luetkemeyer as an out-of-touch insurance executive. A roller coaster ride in the ad is an image conveying that Wall Street is having its roughest ride since the Great Depression. According to the ad, Luetkemeyer is worth over $2 million and he supports privatizing Social Security putting low and moderate income retirees at risk with their future savings.

The DCCC has also attacked Fourth District Republican incumbent congressman Christopher Shays of Connecticut linking him with Bush's privatization scheme. Ironically, his Democratic challenger, Jim Himes, was a former vice president of Goldman Sachs.

The You Tube video at the beginning of this article shows New Hampshire Republican Senator John Sununu morphing into Bush as a narrator tells the audience ominously what would have happened if Bush and Sununu got their way privatizing Social Security.

Democrats are also attacking Republican challengers for expressing support for personal investment accounts. For example, Louisiana state Sen. Bill Cassidy is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Don Cazayoux. A DCCC ad says that Cassidy supports a plan that would have cut guaranteed Social Security benefits and risked the rest of it in the stock market.

Cassidy wrote the radio stations where the attack ad aired and demanded that they remove it because it misrepresented his position. He said that his options were only voluntary and not mandatory.

However, the ads remain on the air. Politico.com got a quote from Cazayoux's pollster John Anzalone expressing confidence that this was a winning political issue for his candidate: ''Let me just say, Cassidy supporting privatization of Social Security that would put pension money in Wall Street is not something that is going to help him out in this race.''

However, it hasn't worked against all Republican challengers. Lou Barletta ran against Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania in 2002 and lost to him. In that race, Barletta said that he supported privatizing Social Security. He has since changed his position.

He is running against Kanjorski now in a rematch and the DCCC is running attack ads against him now repeating his past statements supporting Bush's plan. A recently released independent poll shows Barletta leading Kanjorski 44-35 percent.

The Wall Street bailout deal might also have something to do with Barletta's strong showing in the polls. Kanjorski has been one of the major players on the Democratic side in regard to the bailout negotiations. He supported the plan yesterday in the House vote and Barletta has recently stated that he opposes it.

Republicans have attacked the ads harshly stating that the nonpartisan group FactCheck.org analyzed them and reported that Bush's idea of personal savings accounts were optional and not required. Bush's proposal also exempted people born prior to 1950 and wouldn't have affected seniors currently receiving Social Security benefits.