Brown: Shaheen ‘confused’ on ISIS

New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown calls Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) “confused about the nature of the threat” from Islamic militants in a new ad.

{mosads}“Anyone who turns on the TV these days knows we face challenges to our way of life. Radical Islamic terrorists are threatening to cause the collapse of our country,” Brown says in the ad, in front of an American flag.
 
“President Obama and Sen. Shaheen seem confused about the nature of the threat — not me,” he adds.

Brown goes on to declare his support for securing the border to “keep out the people who would do us harm” and his desire to “restore America’s leadership in the world.”

The ad features a shot of a black-clad man carrying a flag representing the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Shaheen’s spokesman Harrell Kirstein accused Brown of “peddling the politics of fear.” He also noted Shaheen’s vote of support for airstrikes against ISIS in the Senate and her work “to crack down on the terrorists’ financing to disrupt their operations.”

“If Scott Brown is concerned about the border, he should call Speaker Boehner and urge him to schedule a vote on the bipartisan immigration reform bill 68 Senators, including Jeanne Shaheen and [Sen.] Kelly Ayotte [R-N.H.], passed last year that would double our border agents and build 700 miles of border fencing,” Kirstein added.

Brown is one of the first Republicans to directly reference ISIS in a political ad, and the hit comes a day after the first U.S. strikes against the Sunni Muslim terrorist group in Syria.

Polling has shown national security becoming a top issue for Americans, with President Obama and the Democratic Party getting poor marks. Republicans have begun to hammer Democrats in ads on both the terrorist threat and border security, as news events have kept those issues in the forefront of Americans’ minds.

Meanwhile, Shaheen is taking aim at Brown for a new socially conservative platform adopted by the New Hampshire Republican Party this weekend that supports tough restrictions on abortion.

The GOP platform includes a plank defining “the pre-born child’s fundamental right to life and personhood under the Fourteenth Amendment” as well as the “Life at Conception Act,” which would restrict some forms of birth control and effectively outlaw abortion.

In a statement, Shaheen called the platform “disturbing.”

“The message from Scott Brown and his Republican Party is disturbing, alarming and clear: they believe they should make the decisions about birth control and healthcare for women in New Hampshire and around the country,” Shaheen said. “They are dangerously wrong, and by signing on with Tea Party extremists, they’re showing just how irresponsibly out of touch they are with the needs and rights of women.”

Brown’s spokeswoman later clarified that the candidate supports abortion rights. But the state party platform could give Shaheen an opportunity to continue to hammer Brown on women’s issues and exacerbate the gender gap he already faces — one that contributed to his defeat in his 2012 reelection fight in Massachusetts.

Polling on the race has been mixed, recently showing Shaheen leading by anywhere from two to six points.