New Angle ad focuses on Nevada’s bad economy

"They're not statistics. They're people."

That's the first line spoken by Sharron Angle in the Republican U.S. Senate candidate's new ad (see below) out Friday that focuses on the victims of Nevada's bad economy.

Using stark black and white images of a laid off worker, an elderly woman and a worried businessman, the 30-second TV ad puts faces on the state's decline.

"They’re the father who got laid off today and doesn’t know how he’s going to pay for his mortage," Angle says of the affected Nevadans.

"The frightened senior who’s seen half of her home value disapper. And the small-business owner who’s closing for good."

Angle puts the blame on her opponent, Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Harry Reid.

"Let’s be honest. We tried it Harry Reid’s way, and it didn’t work," Angle says, speaking to the camera from a couch in a living room setting.

She says it's time to end bailouts and "reckless spending" and higher taxes "and put Nevadans back to work."

The commercial ends with the image of three male construction workers on the job in hard hats.

The ad is the latest attempt by the Angle campaign to keep the focus on Nevada's record-high jobless rate and housing price declines as polls show Nevadans unhappy with Reid and the Democratic Party for not doing enough to reverse the recession.

The Reid campaign, meanwhile, has been pumping out ads slamming Angle for opposing mandated insurance coverage for everything from mammograms to colonoscopies to autism.

Reid's latest ad (see below), out Thursday, also put a face on the problem, opening with footage of Barbara Trznadel, a breast cancer survivor whose tumor was detected by a mammogram.

The 30-second TV spot says that when Angle was a Reno assemblywoman she tried to get rid of a law to require such coverage.

“In the Assembly, Sharron Angle tried to repeal the law that makes insurance companies cover mammograms,” the ad narrator says.

As backup for its ad, the Reid campaign pointed to Angle's own statements, including during an interview with the editorial board of the Las Vegas Review-Journal on July 24.

In the interview, Angle was asked about a Reid mailer that accuses her of voting against requiring insurance companies to pay for colonoscopies and mammograms.

Angle responds by saying she opposes insurance mandates in general because they can drive up costs and make it harder for people to pay for coverage.

"I even had a bill to remove those mandates here in the state because every time they put a mandate on somebody can’t afford it," Angle said. "Somebody drops off those affordable insurance rolls and now they’re uninsured."

Given the context, Angle appears to be using the word "those" to refer back to mandated coverage for colonoscopies and mammograms.

But her campaign called the ad false and noted Angle sponsored and voted for a bill in 1999, AB163, that required insurance companies to cover mammograms.

"Reid is trying to scare women into voting against me by making up facts out of thin air," Angle said in a statement. "His new attack ad makes a blatantly false claim that I tried to repeal a law that makes insurance companies cover mammograms. As a woman, I understand the fear of breast cancer in a way that Harry Reid never will. I've known many women who have been diagnosed, and families who have lost mothers, daughters and sisters to this horrible disease. I am disgusted that he is playing politics with the tragedy that is breast cancer. It's sick."

The Reid campaign accused Angle of lying to the editorial board and stood behind its ad.
"Angle's new D.C. handlers have issued a statement saying the facts were incorrect," Reid campaign spokesman Kelly Steele said. "This is literally only possible if Sharron Angle has lied repeatedly during the campaign, to the R-J ed board and others."

Sharron Angle ad

Harry Reid ad