Behind the Ad: Gabriel Gomez shows how "dirty" is done

By Richard K. Barry

Who: The Gabriel Gomez U.S. Senate campaign

Where: Massachusetts

What's going on: I hate this kind of ad. It's the worst. In it, GOP Mass. Senate nominee Gabriel Gomez complains that Democratic nominee Ed Markey has run ads comparing Gomez to Osama bin Laden and blaming him for the Newtown school shooting.

The Boston Globe:

“Negative ads from dirty Ed Markey, smearing Gabriel Gomez, comparing him to bin Laden,” a narrator says in the ad, which shows clips of two of Markey’s ads attacking Gomez. “Now, Markey actually blames Gomez for the Newtown shooting. Disgusting. Thirty-seven years in Congress. Dirty Ed Markey.”

Here's the reality:

Despite what the ad says, Markey has not blamed Gomez for the Newtown shooting. Markey has released an ad that highlights Gomez’s opposition to an assault weapons ban and to limits on high-capacity magazines, “like the ones used in the Newtown school shooting.”

As for the Osama bin Laden reference and a Markey ad that juxtaposes images of Gomez and the dead terrorist:

The Markey campaign has pushed back by pointing out that the bin Laden image comes from a video produced by the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, a group that accused President Obama of trying to exploit the killing of bin Laden for political gain. Gomez was a supporter of the group, appearing on MSNBC in August 2012 to defend OPSEC and speaking to Reuters about its activities.

As they say on the playground, you started it. Come on, Gomez, twist the facts if you must, but this is just a lie.



(Cross-posted at Phantom Public.)