National Dems accuse Tillis of corruption in closing ad

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee accuses North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) of “rewarding corruption” in a new ad, their closing argument against him in his hotly contested race against Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.).

{mosads}”His top aide carried on an affair with a lobbyist. Soon after, another Tillis aide, another scandal. Tillis said he fired them. He didn’t,” the ad’s narrator says after clips of local coverage of the incident play. “Instead, Tillis let them resign with a nearly $20,000 payout funded by taxpayers. Thom Tillis: Rewarding corruption under his watch, not looking out for us.”

The ads are reminiscent of attacks leveled by Democratic super-PACs last spring, as Tillis fought to win his primary, though Democrats have not focused on the issue since then, so it’s curious they’re returning to this message this close to Election Day.

Tillis’s campaign fired back.

“With Thom Tillis seizing the momentum in this race, Democrats are making a desperate last-ditch effort to save Kay Hagan’s struggling campaign. Over the last six years, North Carolinians have witnessed the lack of accountability from Hagan and President Obama, who stood in silence during the IRS scandal, Benghazi and the VA scandal,” Tillis spokesman Daniel Keylin said in an email.

Tillis’s campaign had pushed back at the original ads by saying he had fired those staffers, though fact-checkers questioned the veracity of that claim. 

Recent polls find a toss-up contest between the two in a race Democrats have been increasingly nervous about in recent weeks.

— This post was updated at 10:45 a.m.