How unpopular is Obamacare among GOP voters? All four Republicans running for the open 5th Congressional seat have television commercials attacking the Affordable Care Act, the law praised and demeaned by the same shorthand, Obamacare.
In a spot released Tuesday, the first commercial for state Sen. Andrew Roraback, R-Goshen, dutifully recites his opposition to Obamacare, but he makes stronger use of Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy as a foil.
“Endorsed Republican candidate Andrew Roraback and proven fiscal conservative fought Gov. Malloy’s record tax increase and the wasteful busway to Hartford,” a narrator says over shots of laudatory news clippings.
The ad emphasizes Roraback’s experience as a state legislator, an attribute under attack in a new commercial by Mark Greenberg, one of his three rivals for the GOP nomination in the 5th District.
“It’s like the politicians have a playbook,” says the narrator in Greenberg’s ad. “Stand for nothing. Smile and repeat. It’s what got us into this mess. Mark Greenberg has a different approach. Honesty — he’s pro-life and won’t apologize for it.”
Greenberg is competing for the social conservative vote in the 5th. He and Justin Bernier each describe themselves as anti-abortion, while Roraback and Lisa Wilson-Foley support a woman’s right to end a pregnancy.
But it is Obamacare that unites the GOP. Both Roraback and Greenberg attack the Affordable Care Act in their new ads, as do Bernier and Wilson-Foley in older commercials.
“We need to repeal or replace Obamacare,” said Wilson-Foley, a health care executive. “I know a little something about health care. My businesses are all about health care.”
Bernier took an even darker view, offering the health care law as emblematic of something darker.
“Obamacare is a dangerous, big government mandate,” Bernier says in his ad. “It’s dead wrong. Let’s repeal it now.”
Justin Bernier – Time to Fight from Bernier for Congress on Vimeo.
The Republican and Democratic primaries are Aug. 14.
House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, is the endorsed Democrat, opposed by former state Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Meriden, and Dan Roberti of Kent. All three also are on the air.