Rosen dismisses NRSC ad targeting her consulting business as a 'spineless' attack
Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen is up with a new television spot in the U.S. Senate race today dismissing an ad earlier this week from the Senate Republicans' political arm — which targets her one-woman consulting business — as a "spineless" attack.
The 30-second spot responds to accusations in an ad from the National Republican Senatorial Committee that Rosen is "full of hot air" after she said she "built a business" when she ran a one-woman consulting firm. In response, Rosen's ad draws on one of her previous ads — "Senator Spineless" featuring an orange inflatable tube man — and accuses her opponent, U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, of "lying" about her career.
The ad is backed by a seven-figure buy and will run in Reno, where the NRSC ad is running.
In Rosen's ad, the narrator says that journalists have "debunked" the claims in the NRSC ad, pointing to tweets from The Nevada Independent Editor Jon Ralston saying that Heller's campaign "twisted the truth" and "pushed phony info."
The narrator then says that Rosen worked her way through college as a waitress, became a computer programer and "ran an independent consulting business."
"Those are the facts," the narrator says. "But Dean Heller is still lying about Jacky Rosen's career. No wonder they call him Senator Spineless."
Rosen ran a consulting business between 1993 and 2002 that served two main clients, Southwest Gas and Radiology Specialists, according to her campaign. An article from the Reno Gazette-Journal determined that Rosen wouldn't have needed a state business license to run the firm and that although she would have needed a license from Henderson — which her campaign says she believes she obtained — the city does not maintain records of past licenses.
In a statement, NRSC spokesman Michael McAdams called her response ad "even weaker than her bogus claim she 'built a business."
"Rosen has continuously failed to provide a shred of evidence her so-called 'business' had a name, business license or any employees," he said.
Updated 8-10-18 at 8:52 a.m. to include a statement from the NRSC.
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