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“In Bucks County, we need to keep our families safe,” Democrat Mark Lomax, a candidate for county sheriff in suburban Philadelphia, says in a new TV ad shared first with POLITICO. “It starts with funding the police.”
That 30-second ad follows another in which Lomax appears with Democratic district attorney candidate Antonetta Stancu and says, “We know that to fight crime, we must fund the police.”
The explicit commitment to fund the police is rooted in lessons learned from 2020, when numerous Democrats insisted that the "defund the police" movement damaged their electoral prospects. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also concluded in an election autopsy earlier this year that the issue “carried a punch.” But the Democratic messaging is also a reaction to polling: Only 18 percent of Americans said they support the "defund the police" movement, according to a March poll of 1,165 Americans from Ipsos/USA TODAY.
“It's one of the few attacks that needs an answer,” said Celinda Lake, a top Democratic pollster. “Most of the other attacks — socialism costing jobs, mandates on vaccines, taxes — these attacks don't have any resonance, so the Republicans are down to one attack.”
In Virginia, where nearly a half-dozen legislative candidates have been targeted by "defund" ads, Democrat Michelle Maldonado went so far as to decline an endorsement from NARAL Virginia this year because the abortion rights group, like many left-leaning organizations, issued a statement in support of defunding the police in the wake of Floyd’s death in Minneapolis
“What the Democrats in Virginia are doing right now is trying to mirror their allies in Washington, who also were all for the defund police movement when they thought it was popular back last summer. Now that they realize it's a political liability, they're trying to reverse their previous positions,” said Andrew Romeo, spokesperson for the Republican State Leadership Committee PAC, which is airing the ads. “All the other vulnerable House Democrats should join Maldonado in rejecting that endorsement, otherwise it should just be inferred that they support defunding the police.”
In a sign of the GOP’s message discipline on the issue, the National Republican Congressional Committee even seized on the DCCC’s announcement of staff hires last week to hammer the point home.
“DCCC's new top hires promoted anti-police rhetoric, defund police movement,” the subject line of the email read
Republicans used a similar playbook in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County last year with considerable success. While at the top of the ticket Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump 52 percent to 47 percent, Republicans performed well most everywhere else downballot.
Among the GOP winners: Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, who introduced the “Defund Cities that Defund the Police Act” last summer. He was one of just nine Republicans to win a district carried by Biden.
www.politico.com
