A Republican super PAC trying to influence a crucial Senate race in Maine spent thousands of dollars running an attack ad in the wrong Portland, targeting voters thousands of miles away in Oregon. An ad funded by the super PAC, Defending Main Street, assailing Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee in Maine, was shown to more than a million viewers in Oregon and over 300,000 others in Washington State from Thursday to Sunday, according to Google's advertising data.
The super PAC's chief financial officer, Sarah Chamberlain, pinned the blunder, which cost $25,900, entirely on its ad-buying vendor, Cross Screen Media. She said the vendor had pulled the ads, which ran on YouTube, and began a new campaign targeting Mr. Jackson in Maine. "Defending Main Street had nothing to do with this," Ms. Chamberlain said, before mentioning 1903 Group, the vendor's parent company. "They screwed up."
A spokesman for 1903 Group confirmed the mistake and said the money had been refunded to the super PAC, which said no donor funds would be lost. The ad, titled "So Many Taxes," says that Mr. Jackson supports raising taxes, a line of attack that Senator Susan Collins, a Republican seeking a sixth term, has repeatedly used. Ms. Collins is not named in the ad. Mr. Jackson has countered that he supports tax increases only on wealthy individuals and large corporations.
People on social media shared how bizarre it was to see the ad in Oregon. Later, the Google listing for the ad appeared to have been fixed to show ZIP codes in Maine. Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for Mr. Jackson's campaign, said Ms. Collins and "her allies are so out of touch with Maine, they apparently can't find it on a map." Some campaigns intentionally target national audiences, but the Maine ad was a pure mistake. The money spent in the Portland, Ore., market paled next to the $946,500 the super PAC recently paid for television and streaming ads opposing Mr. Jackson, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing