Republican challenger Scott Brown went after New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen with two new TV ads Monday that tie the Democratic incumbent to President Obama.
In one of the ads, Mr. Brown touts his 35 years of military service in the Army National Guard and slams Mrs. Shaheen for supporting Mr. Obama’s unpopular foreign policy, highlighting Mr. Obama’s embarrassing comment in August that “we don’t have a strategy” for fighting the terrorist army that calls itself Islamic State.
“Scott Brown spent 35 years in the Army National Guard. He knows what it takes to keep America safe — starting with a strong military,” says the narrator. “And Jeanne Shaheen, she supports President Obama’s failed foreign policy.”
The other ad, titled “Broken Promises,” hits Mrs. Shaheen for voting 99 percent of the time with Mr. Obama, despite her promise when first elected in 2008 to be an “independent voice” in the Senate.
Mr. Brown’s strategy mirrors other GOP challengers trying to tie incumbent Democrats to Mr. Obama. As in the rest of the country, the president’s job approval rating hovers around 45 percent in the Granite State.
Mr. Brown, a former senator from Massachusetts who lost his seat in 2012 and moved to neighboring New Hampshire to stage a comeback, has mounted an increasingly aggressive campaign.
He has closed in on Mrs. Shaheen in some polls, though the Real Clear Politics average of recent New Hampshire polls show Mrs. Shaheen with a 4.6 percent lead.
A New England College poll last week showed the candidates in a statistical dead heat, with Mrs. Shaheen drawing 47.1 percent support and Mr. Brown garnering 46.6 percent, a difference easily within the poll’s 2.69 percent margin of error.
The New Hampshire race is one of the more challenging for Republicans aiming for a net gain of six seats to seize majority control of the U.S. Senate this year.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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