Iran emerges as a top issue in tight congressional races
The pro-Iran deal J Street is spending $500,000 to unseat nuclear deal opponents.
On Oct. 5, the liberal pro-Israel group J Street began airing the first television ads attacking Republicans who voted against the nuclear deal with Iran.
The $500,000 ad buy targets two incumbent senators in the crucial swing states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Pat Toomey and Ron Johnson. Their Democratic opponents, Katie McGinty and Russ Feingold, respectively, have both come out in support of the agreement even though they were not in Congress to vote for it.
“We aim to exact a cost from the deal’s most strident opponents, who tried at every turn to undercut the very negotiations that led to the historic defanging of Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said in a statement. “And in the same breath, or 30-second ad, such as it is, we’ll bolster those candidates who represent a new approach to conflict resolution and American diplomatic leadership in the Middle East and beyond.”
The almost identical ads link the two Republicans to their party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, who has vowed to “dismantle” the deal if he is elected. The ads also point out that a bevy of US and Israeli security experts support the agreement, without of course mentioning that many others — chief among them Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — disagree. J Street has also developed similar ads targeting Sens. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., although those ads are only running online for now.
