Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) is tackling issues with ObamaCare with her first ad of her reelection fight, which seeks to distance the lawmaker from the president.
The ad, which is backed by a $250,000 buy, touts a bill she produced that would allow Americans to keep their insurance under ObamaCare.
Obama’s now-erroneous promise that people could keep their plans if they liked them has become a major thorn in the sides of vulnerable Democrats as news reports have revealed thousands of Americans losing their coverage as the law takes effect.
The ad features a trio of clips of Landrieu urging the president to fix the law, interspersed with news clips touting her work on the solution.
“I’m fixing it and that’s what my bill does and I’ve urged the president to fix it,” she says in one clip.
In another, she says to Obama: “This is a promise that you made, this is a promise that you should keep.”
It’s an attempt from the Landrieu campaign to distance the candidate from a deeply unpopular president and what’s widely believed to be one of the biggest flubs of his presidency, the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Multiple polls in recent weeks have shown Obama’s popularity at an all-time low, as well as Republicans taking the lead over Democrats in the House and Senate.
Those numbers are particularly troubling for Landrieu and three other Democratic senators running for reelection in states Obama lost in 2012. Republicans are seeking to make Obama, and the ACA, a centerpiece of their attacks in those states.
Landrieu has worked to distance herself from the president, however, with her proposal hammering Obama on ObamaCare. Facing pressures from both the left and the right, the president proposed an administrative fix to the law to allow insurers to continue to offer existing plans to customers, and Louisiana officials have agreed to implement it.
The bill Landrieu touts in the ad has not been passed, though Landrieu’s office says the senator is still pushing the measure.
The Louisiana GOP was quick to push back on the ad, characterizing its claims as “distortions” and pointing to a report that Landrieu and other vulnerable Democrats backed a rule that ultimately led to the dropped coverage.
Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the establishment pick to challenge Landrieu, said the senator won’t be able to distance herself from the bill, and called the ad “misleading.”
“Obamacare is filled with problems that we are all witnessing as it unravels. It’s understandable for Senator Landrieu to try to paint as rosy a picture as she can — she was the deciding vote for the law and continues to champion it. Her recent TV ad is simply misleading: To the many Louisianans who have had their current policies canceled and to every other American, who simply know better from reading the news,” he said.
—This piece was updated at 1:26 p.m. to reflect comment from Cassidy and the Louisiana GOP.