Ninth District Congressional Candidate Morgan Griffith says a full page attack ad in The Roanoke Times is "preposterous." Monday afternoon, he said it's his opponent's support for cap and trade legislation that will kill jobs in southwest Virginia.
The ad was financed not by the campaign of Democratic incumbent Rick Boucher, but by an environmental action group, the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The ad features photographs of large windmills, and the headline "Morgan Griffith is for creating jobs - In China." The ad copy says he "wants to block clean energy legislation that will create thousands of jobs in Virginia - good jobs that can't be outsourced." The tag line is "Morgan Griffith says he wants to create jobs, but it looks like he wants to create them somewhere else."
The Republican candidate spoke with reporters during a news conference Monday afternoon in Christiansburg. "I think most people who are paying attention to the issue and understand cap and trade know that is preposterous."
Griffith argued that cap and trade legislation will kill the coal industry and send manufacturing jobs overseas. "It's a shame that people don't realize that cap and trade will truly kill industry in these United States," Griffith said.
Late Monday afternoon, Boucher's campaign responded with this statement: "Congressman Boucher had nothing to do with the ad that appeared in the Roanoke Times today. He was, in fact, unaware of it. He has no comment on the substance. It would be a violation of federal law for Congressman Boucher to have solicited or coordinated in any way or to have commented on the ad's content to the organization's sponsoring the ad."
A review of The Roanoke Times' published rates indicates that the NRDC spent about 55- hundred dollars for the full page advertisement.
