Bipartisan group to launch ads for House centrists

The centrist group Center Forward is going on air with its first ad buy of the election cycle, touting the work of centrists who voted to withhold salaries from Congress unless it passed a budget.

The ads, backing five Democrats and a pair of Republicans, are the opening salvo in what the group promises to be a major effort to shore up centrists in the 2014 elections.

The ads will support Democratic Reps. Ron Barber (Ariz.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), Cheri Bustos (Ill.), Pete Gallego (Texas) and John Carney (Del.), as well as Republican Reps. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.).

Sinema, Barber, Bustos and Gallego all face potentially tough elections this fall, while Hanna may face a Tea Party challenge.

The initial flight of ads has $755,000 behind it and will run during the next two weeks, with another round planned for May or June. Center Forward spent more than $5 million in the 2012 election, and former Rep. Bud Cramer (D-Ala.) promised it would exceed that level this year.

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