(Updated)Fairly or unfairly, lobbyists aren't ranked very high by the American people, and haven't been for awhile. And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in supporting Alex Sink in the CD13 special election, wants to make sure everyone knows that her GOP opponent, Republican David Jolly, has made a career out of such work.
So starting today and running through next Monday, the DCCC is spending $200,000 to get the word out in a new ad running in the district, called "Proud," which alleges that the firm he lobbied for supported former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, labeled in the ad as a "dictator."
Transcript available after the jump:
Narrator: David Jolly’s proud to be a lobbyist.
Jolly: I have been a registered lobbyist. And I’m proud of the work that I’ve done.
Narrator: Is Jolly proud of lobbying for special interests that received over three million in taxpayer-funded earmarks?
Narrator: Or the firm lobbying for hundreds of millions for a dictator — in Pakistan?
Narrator: As we face record debt.
Narrator: Lobbyist David Jolly’s proud. We pay the price.
Going back to Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf was a crucial U.S. ally immediately after 9/11, but he did seize power in a bloodless coup in 1999. He also bypassed Pakistan's constitution in 2007 to keep himself in power. He is now facing charges of treason.
Van Scoyoc Associates was the lobbying firm that Jolly worked for. Politico reported in 2007 that the firm was being paid $55,000 a month from the Musharraf government.
(Update)A spokeswoman for Jolly, Sarah Bascom, was dismissive of the ad, telling CL in an email that “Clearly the democrats are seeing the same polling data showing that Alex Sink is trailing David Jolly and they are becoming desperate. David Jolly never lobbied for Pakistan and the democrats know this."
CL has reached out to the Jolly campaign for a comment and we'll post it here once we receive that.
