Marshall takes aim at Amodei in new TV spot

Kate Marshall delivered a one-two punch Wednesday in the Democrat's first TV campaign ads, taking on the role of aggressor as she makes a bid to win a Republican House seat.

In one ad, Marshall touts her credentials as state treasurer, but she goes on the attack in a second commercial that slams GOP opponent Mark Amodei for backing a $1 billion tax plan.

The dual TV ads, airing up to several times an hour in Reno and Las Vegas, come one month before early voting starts ahead of the Sept. 13 special election to replace former U.S. Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev. Heller resigned in May to take a U.S. Senate appointment after Republican John Ensign stepped down.

The spots are appearing just as summer-lulled voters might start to pay attention to the contest in the 2nd Congressional District, which covers Northern and rural Nevada and a slice of Clark County. The seat always has been held by the GOP, which has a 31,000 registered voter edge over Democrats.

Marshall takes direct aim at Amodei in her ad titled "Judge Me." It uses his own words to remind voters the former state senator in 2003 co-sponsored a $1 billion tax hike package. The clip shows Amodei speaking at a GOP forum and admitting, "Yeah, that's true" that he backed the bill.

"And while Amodei was raising our taxes, he voted himself a pay raise," the ad announcer says.

In another video clip, Amodei says, "Judge me by what I do."

"OK, Mark, we will," the ads ends.

When he got into the race, Amodei defended his $1 billion tax proposal, saying he co-sponsored it with a Democratic lawmaker to avoid a gross-receipts tax on businesses that had been proposed by the late Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican. The business tax proposal failed.

In 2009, Amodei voted against a $781 million tax hike, his campaign said. And in 2005, Amodei voted to return $300 million to Nevada taxpayers as part of a rebate.

POSITIVE AD IS TITLED 'COMMON SENSE'

In Marshall's positive ad titled "Common Sense," she portrays herself as a fiscal conservative, saying that as state treasurer since 2006, she has saved Nevada "millions of dollars" by renegotiating contracts and cutting costs. She also said she has increased services without raising taxes.

During the downturn, Marshall said, she didn't take a pay raise either.

"When it comes to our money, Washington, they need more common sense," she says.

Amodei's campaign called the new Marshall ads "truth-challenged" and said she was following in the footsteps of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

He won re-election in 2010, in part thanks to a barrage of negative attacks against Sharron Angle, his conservative Republican challenger.

Peter DeMarco, communications director for Amodei, accused Marshall of backing tax hikes in the past while Amodei has signed a pledge not to raise taxes. He noted she supported national health care reform, which critics say raised taxed on employers by $500 billion.

Last year, he said, Marshall urged the Nevada Employment Security Council to OK a 50 percent unemployment tax hike.

"Once again liberal Kate Marshall is trying to deceive voters," DeMarco said.

James Hallinan, Marshall's communications director, disputed the charge. He said that the transcript of the council meeting provided by the GOP shows she never backed any hike.

Instead, Marshall proposed that the state seek legal authority from the Legislature to borrow money at a lower interest rate to pay back more than $500 million in unemployment insurance it owed the federal government.

"What they said is just not true," Hallinan said.

The two campaigns traded jabs on the pay issue as well.

DeMarco said Amodei didn't vote himself a pay raise because the last one he approved went into effect in 2011 when he was no longer a state senator. But Amodei previously had approved higher pay for sitting legislators -- including himself -- at least once during his service in the Senate.

As for Marshall, she and her fellow state constitutional officers took a 4.6 percent pay cut levied on state workers in 2009. She didn't continue the 4.6 percent voluntary reduction this past year, but she and the other state officers turned down a scheduled 6 percent pay raise.

GOP POINTS OUT INVESTMENT MONEY LOST

The National Republican Congressional Committee scoffed at Marshall's attempt to paint herself as a fiscal conservative in ads that don't mention she is a Democrat.

The NRCC said that Marshall lost $50 million of Nevada taxpayer investments when Lehman Bros., the Wall Street bank, failed in 2008, as unemployment and home foreclosure rates soared.

"The fact that Kate Marshall brags about her failed economic record as the state's top financial officer is a slap in the face to Nevada's struggling families and small businesses," Tyler Q. Houlton, NRCC spokesman, said in a statement.

Amodei has run three TV ads aimed at criticizing Congress, Reid and President Barack Obama for the slumping U.S. economy and debt crisis. None of his campaign commercials mentions Marshall.

DeMarco said Amodei's campaign hasn't decided whether to turn the tables and go on the air attacking Marshall directly. It might depend on how much damage his campaign thinks her ads do.

"Anything's possible," he said. "She's going to try to throw up everything she possibly can and hope that it sticks."

Contact reporter Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.