Martin ad attacks Carnahan for spending, job loss

Martin, Carnahan will face off in November in St. Louis. (Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

(ST. LOUIS, Mo.) Congressional candidate Ed Martin released a new ad entitled “Lost,” focusing on spending Congresman Carnahan voted for in his time in the House.

“Congressman Carnahan approved Billions for an auto bailout, then sat and watched as Chrysler closed its Fenton plant and shipped the jobs to Mexico and Canada. The hard working people of Carnahan’s district want to know why $550 Million, of their tax dollars, was spent on stimulating jobs across the border,” said Theresa Petry. Petry said Carnahan at the time “was busy jet-setting around the world on lobbyists’ dollars and rubberstamping Nancy Pelosi’s bills that he admittedly didn’t even bother to read.”

Martin’s campaign said votes for the Recovery Act, TARP, energy bill, and the Affordable Care Act were “out of touch” with voters in the 3rd district.

“It’s time to say ‘No’ to Rubberstamp Russ,” Petry said.

Petry says Martin has a record on jobs through his non profit program “SaveAB.com”, even though he hasn’t held elected office. “In 2008 he took on a David and Goliath fight and founded SaveAB.com. It was a grassroots effort to help save local jobs at Anheuser Busch.” Petry notes, “Even with 85,000 supporters the sale went through, but Ed’s determination to save jobs has not and will not waiver.”

Angela Guyadeen, Communications Director for the Carnahan campaign, said this is a misrepresentation. “Ed Martin exploited the nonprofit group’s website to solicit 40,000 individuals and direct people to his campaign — just another example showing he has no shame in bending the rules for his own personal gain.”

The Associated Press reported in December 2009 that Martin used the email list from SaveAB.com to link to a campaign webpage.

“The revived SaveAB.com provides a link to Martin’s campaign website for those “interested in finding out more or joining Ed Martin.” Earlier this week, a SaveAB e-mail account was used to send an identical message to about 40,000 people who had provided their e-mail addresses to the group…,” said the AP report by David Lieb.

Martin told Lieb, “My intention was not to use the list for the campaign or to promote me over Russ Carnahan or anything, it was to close the loop on the questions.”

Guyadeen said, “Ed Martin not only lacks integrity, but as his pattern of behavior shows, he lacks the sound judgment needed to handle the responsibility of the public’s trust.”

The ad began airing online Monday.