Chamber of Commerce launches ad blitz

The Chamber of Commerce is launching a $3 million advertising campaign to boost preferred candidates and incumbents in 10 House races nationwide in its first major shift toward the general election.

{mosads}And in Colorado’s Senate race, the Chamber is spending nearly $660,000 on broadcast and cable ads in the Denver, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction markets on an ad in which Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) touts GOP Senate candidate Cory Gardner in Spanish.

The House ads will run for two weeks and are supporting GOP Reps. Andy Barr (Ky.), Dan Benishek (Mich.), Mike Coffman (Colo.), Chris Gibson (N.Y.), Joe Heck (Nev.) and David Valadao (Calif.), as well as GOP candidates Bob Dold, running for his old seat in Illinois; Stewart Mills, challenging Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan in Minnesota; former Rep. Doug Ose, challenging Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.); and Richard Tisei, challenging Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.).

In Idaho’s 2nd District, the Chamber is also extending its buy to continue airing an ad in which 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney touts Rep. Mike Simpson (R), who’s locked in a primary battle with attorney Bryan Smith.

Two common themes appear in nearly all the ads: Opposition to ObamaCare and support for job creation, both issues on which Republicans believe they can win this fall as Democrats grapple with persistent national pessimism about the economy and the healthcare law.

Nearly two-thirds of those polled in a CNN survey out this week described the country’s economic conditions as poor, and a late-August survey from USA Today and the Pew Research Center showed 55 percent of Americans view the healthcare reform law negatively.

Republicans believe the physicians in their ranks are particularly well-suited to make the case against the law, and ads airing for Heck and Benishek both tout their opposition to ObamaCare as doctors.

In California’s 21st and Colorado’s 6th districts, two districts with large Hispanic populations, the Chamber’s ads highlight Valadao and Coffman’s work on immigration reform.

The Chamber has been more active this cycle, spending a reported $6.6 million since February, in part, on competitive primaries to boost candidates they see as pro-business and those they believe will work to break the gridlock in Congress. Their preferred candidate, North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis, won the GOP Senate primary there on Tuesday night.