Liberal Independent Expenditure Group Finally Takes to the Airwaves

Commonsense Ten, a Democrat-leaning independent spending outfit — and one of the first groups, along with Club for Growth, to petition the FEC to create a new category of “independent expenditure committees” allowed to raise unlimited funds from individuals — is finally up with its first ad of the season.

The ad, which is set to air in the Kansas City media market, goes after Missouri GOP Senate candidate Rep. Roy Blunt for a provision he tried to insert into a homeland security bill that would have benefited Phillip Morris, the tobacco company. It also mentions the fact that both Blunt’s son and then-girlfriend (now wife) were lobbyists for Phillip Morris’ parent company at the time, labeling Blunt “what’s wrong with Washington.”

Aside from a few large labor unions like the American Federation Of State County & Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union, Democratic-leaning outside groups have struggled, relative to their conservative counterparts like American Crossroads and Club for Growth, to raise and spend cash. Commonsense Ten — whose three founding members are former Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee executive director Jim Jordan, Democratic operative Jeff Forbes, and former Al Gore aide Monica Dixon — only reported raising $500 in the second quarter that ended on June 31, for instance. The group’s six figure ad buy today indicates it must have done at least somewhat better than that in the summer months that followed.