In new ads, Crossroads GPS, American Crossroads, target Senate Dem candidates in battleground states
Updated: 12:24 p.m. ET
(CBS News) About a week after launching a $7 million ad buy blasting President Obama's record on debt, Crossroads GPS is taking its message to the state level.
In a $2 million ad buy Wednesday, the Karl Rove-linked group is targeting competitive Democratic Senate candidates in Missouri, North Dakota and Ohio, with ads entitled "Spending," "Change," and "Cheap" respectively.
Meanwhile, American Crossroads, Crossroads GPS' sister organization and a super PAC, launched $2.6 million worth of ads targeting Democratic Senate candidates in Nevada, Nebraska and Virginia.
Crossroads is a tax-exempt nonprofit group that can spend unlimited money on politics, but the majority of its money must be spent on policy issues. American Crossroads, on the other hand, is a super PAC that is required to reveal its donors.
All six states are key battleground states and currently home to highly .
"We're turning up the heat on Washington to fix the debt mess and stop President Obama's destructive health care takeover," said Nate Hodson, who is director of state and regional media relations of both Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads, in a release about the Crossroads GPS spots. "These ads alert citizens to where policymakers stand and equip them to advocate for the practical solutions contained in the New Majority Agenda."
The Crossroads GPS ads target incumbent Missouri Democrat and incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill, incumbent Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown, and North Dakota hopeful Heidi Heitkamp over their support for Mr. Obama and his health care and stimulus policies.
The American Crossroads ads, similarly, target three Democratic Senate candidates in equally competitive races -- Bob Kerrey in Nebraska, Shelley Berkley in Nevada and Tim Kaine in Virginia -- over their records and ties to the left.
"These liberal candidates are unfortunate examples of what's wrong in Washington - politicians who put their own personal agendas ahead of the people they represent," said Hodson, of the American Crossroads ads. "We can't fix the broken economy and national debt by electing these self-serving liberal politicians to the U.S. Senate."
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) blasted what it called Karl Rove's "shadowy special interest groups," for attempting to "prop up Republican Senate hopefuls who Rove knows will do the bidding for his special interest agenda in Washington" through the ads.
"Karl Rove is spending millions propping up George Allen, Rick Berg, Josh Mandel, and their fellow Republican Senate hopefuls because he knows these candidates will do the bidding for his special interest agenda in Washington," said Matt Canter, spokesman for the DSCC, in a statement. "He wouldn't be investing in these races if he didn't think he was going to get loyal votes for his reckless policies in return."
