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SEIU Ads Target 7 Key Republicans on Immigration Reform

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One day after AFL-CIO announced that they would be running ads in target districts calling out Republicans for opposing immigration reform, SEIU announced a $500,000 ad buy in the districts of seven House Republicans who are key targets in this year’s push to pass legislation.

Watch one of the ads–targeting Rep. Joe Heck of Nevada–below:

The ads are designed to weaken the targeted Republicans by questioning whether House Republicans are still capable of governing.  They link the opposition to immigration reform to the same forces that helped drive the fiscal crisis last month–Tea Partiers like Rep. Steve King (R-IA).  Polls show that voter anger over the recent shutdown still hasn’t died away, and the ads–as Greg Sargent at the Washington Post wrote–attempt to make “individual House Republicans pay a political price for the party’s refusal to embrace solutions to pressing problems that are supported by the national electorate”.

The SEIU ads will run in the districts of GOP Reps. Gary Miller (CA), Joe Heck (NV), Mike Coffman (CO), Rodney Davis (IL), David Joyce (OH), Michael Grimm (NY), and Speaker John Boehner (OH).

According to SEIU director of government relations Peter Colavito, immigration reform is one of the few remaining issues that can help GOPers made vulnerable as a result of the shutdown.  As he told Sargent:

As a result of Republican extremism, most Americans are skeptical that the House majority can get anything positive done.  Immigration might be the only issue this session where reasonable Republicans can legislate and get right with mainstream voters.