Billionaire activist Steyer compares Gomez to Bush, Romney in online ad

Environmental activist and billionaire Tom Steyer is going up on Internet radio this weekend with an ad tying Gabriel Gomez, the Republican candidate for Massachusetts Senate, to previous Republican presidential candidates.

{mosads}The ad is fashioned after a game show, with a show host asking the question: “Which Republican best represents Massachusetts?”

“Is it the anti-Social Security, pro-big oil George W. Bush? Is it the anti-choice, pro-gun Mitt Romney? Or is it Gabriel Gomez, who’s anti-choice, anti-Social Security, pro-guns and pro-big oil?” asks the narrator, who urges viewers to “make the smart choice: Vote no on Gomez.”

The ad will run on the Internet radio service Pandora starting Saturday, along with two banner ads, and is expected to get 22 million gross impressions. It will be targeted initially to Massachusetts residents over 18, particularly women over 25, and, later, women 55 and over.

The video will also run as a pre-roll YouTube ad, targeted to women 55 and over and viewers in the area surrounding Boston.

Steyer, a California private equity executive and climate activist, spent $650,000 in attacks on Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) in the Democratic primary, despite the fact eventual nominee Rep. Edward Markey remained the clear frontrunner in nearly every poll of the race. 

His attacks centered on Lynch’s support for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which Steyer opposes.

His group, NextGen Committee, last week indicated it would engage in the general election as well. The group has since launched a round of highly targeted ads, including a Facebook page titled “Gabriel Gomez: Mitt Lite,” that compares Gomez’s record to Mitt Romney’s and has more than 4,000 likes.

That page was initially targeted to progressive voters in Massachusetts, and is now shifting to both Democratic and independent college-educated women, 55 and older.

According to recently filed Federal Election Commission documents, Steyer’s group recently spent $58,000 on Facebook ads and video production.

It’s unclear how much the billionaire expects to spend in the general election, but a memo outlining his group’s plans said the group would be “seeking to be a politically disruptive force between now and Election Day.”

Markey is favored to win the general, and leads Gomez in every poll of the race. But Gomez has kept Markey’s lead to single digits in most polls. Democrats insist they’ll take nothing for granted following the surprising loss the party suffered during the 2010 special election, when former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) was elected.

Watch the ad: