Team,

Well, it’s official: you can't turn on a TV in Michigan’s new 7th district without seeing an attack ad against Elissa.

The super PAC ads are up in full force. Republican super PACs, like the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Congressional Leadership Fund, have already spent nearly $3 million in attack ads against Elissa -- the most of any House race in America right now. And they have reservations for an additional whopping $3 million on TV (and digital) ads in Elissa’s district.

This is the GOP playbook lately: keep quiet, don’t do interviews, and just wait for the last 8 weeks of the campaign and hope the GOP super PACs blast her with attack ads that sink in with voters. We’re seeing it across Michigan, and certainly with Elissa’s opponent.

And some of these attack ads are really grasping at straws. In one, an answer Elissa gave during a bipartisan event at U of M is clipped to make it sound like Elissa is making the exact opposite point. Another takes a video clip of a public service announcement about cyber attacks and does what attack ads do best: slow down the footage, put a dark filter over it, and add scary music to the background to indicate something bad is happening.

To make things even more clear: Elissa’s opponent has barely any of his own ads running at the moment. He has decided to let these outside groups do the vast majority of the talking for him. 

Elissa’s opponent can hide behind out-of-state super PACs all he wants, but the fact of the matter is that Elissa’s bipartisan work on behalf of the people of mid-Michigan speaks for itself. Chip in before our September 30th end-of-quarter deadline to help us convey that contrast (through ads of our own!) throughout the new 7th district.