New Americans United for Change TV Ad Hits Norm Coleman for Enabling Bush’s Endless War in Iraq

Americans United for Change Launches Six-Figure TV Ad Blitz Calling on Norm Coleman to Vote to Bring War in Iraq to Safe and Responsible End

 

Ad release part of New "Iraq Summer" Campaign, Turning Up the Heat on Coleman to Vote to Wind Down the War in Iraq

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Ad Script | Back-up Materials

July 9, 2007 (Washington D.C.) - With the war in Iraq now well into its 5th year and as U.S. forces continue to suffer tragic consequences there policing an endless civil war, Americans United for Change - a leading partner in the national coalition Americans Against Escalation in Iraq -- unveiled an aggressive, six-figure TV ad campaign today in the Twin Cities, Minnesota media market calling on Senator Norm Coleman to vote to bring the war in Iraq to a safe and responsible end.  The ad comes on the heels of several high profile defections President Bush has suffered on his Iraq policy, most notably Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, Republican Senator George Voinovich of Ohio and Republican Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico.  The ad blitz is timed coincide with debate in the U.S. Senate on the Defense Authorization bill and votes on several amendments to wind down the war in Iraq.

The ad release was also the first major action of the Minnesota chapter of "Iraq Summer" -- a new nationwide campaign organized by Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, which has dispatched nearly 100 organizers to the home states and districts of Republican Senators and Representatives who have opposed setting a timeline to end the war in Iraq.  The program is modeled on the "Freedom Summer" civil rights project.  Organizers are operating in fifteen states from Nevada to Maine in a total of 40 congressional districts.

"This ad is designed to hold Senator Coleman publicly accountable for his repeated votes against winding down the war in Iraq and to convince him to represent the clear majority of Minnesotans by voting to bring this war to a safe and responsible end," said Donald McFarland, MN Director of Americans United For Change.  "We hope the Senator will get the message, stop following the President blindly down this tortured path and instead follow the lead of his Republican colleagues like Dick Lugar and George Voinovich who are demanding a new direction in Iraq. The more Republican Members of Congress we can convince to do the right thing, the more pressure President Bush will be under to change course in Iraq rather than continuing his failed ‘stay the course' policy of open-ended, permanent war in Iraq."

"This ad is designed not only to pressure Senator Coleman to put doing the right thing on Iraq ahead of blind loyalty to President Bush and his failed policy, but is designed to put other Members on notice, including U.S. Reps. Jim Ramstad and Michele Bachmann, that they need to do the right thing and vote to wind down the war in Iraq or be subject to ads and activity like this in their own districts," continued McFarland.  "These Members have a clear choice to make: continue to stand with a failed policy and an isolated and discredited President which the vast majority of Americans and Minnesotans oppose - or do the right thing and join their own constituents and a bipartisan majority in Congress and force a change of course in Iraq which gets Americans forces out of the crosshairs of a civil war."

Americans United for Change is a non-profit, issue-advocacy organization best known for leading the fight to defeat the President's disastrous Social Security privatization proposal back in 2005 and is now a leading force in the effort to bring a safe and responsible end to the war in Iraq. In addition to Senator Coleman, as part of a more than $1 million campaign, Americans United launched TV ads across the country this year holding Members of Congress accountable for their votes against ending the war in Iraq, including US. Reps. Mary Bono (CA-45), Tim Johnson (IL-15), Jim Walsh (NY-25), Dean Heller (NV-02),  Randy Kuhl (NY-29), and Heather Wilson (NM-01), Sen. John Sununu (R-NH), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), and Senate Minority Leader and Obstructionist-in-Chief Mitch McConnell (R-KY). 

 

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