Radio, Newspaper, Internet Ads, Phone Banks, and Grassroots Mailings Target Centrist Democratic Senators, Urge “NO” Vote on Cloture

As the U.S. Senate debates health care legislation backed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the White House, a new grassroots organization has launched a campaign opposing the bill that targets centrist Democratic Senators who will hold the key to the bill’s fate.

The Faith and Freedom Coalition, a grassroots public policy organization with 75,000 members and supporters in 225 local chapters nationwide launched the campaign opposing cloture on the Reid bill. The campaign, expected to cost approximately $500,000, includes radio ads, newspaper ads, grassroots mailings, phone banks, and Internet banner ads.

The campaign is beginning in Arkansas, Nebraska, Louisiana, Virginia and Indiana. According to FFC officials, the campaign may expand based on the legislative debate in the U.S. Senate.

The FFC ads urge defeat of the Reid bill because it includes “$500 billion in new taxes, a half trillion in Medicare cuts that hurt seniors, 118 new bureaucratic agencies and programs, and an unfunded mandate that will cost the states billions in new Medicaid spending.” To hear one of the radio ads, click Health care Ad. The ads began airing in the states yesterday.

In addition, Faith and Freedom Coalition state leaders and local chapters will distribute literature in churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship and at community events. They will also utilize phone trees and email blasts to turn out supporters to visit the offices of Senators Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Jim Webb and Evan Bayh.

“We consider a vote for cloture to be a vote for government-run health care,” said Jason Dore, a director of the Louisiana Faith and Freedom Coalition. “We will tell Mary Landrieu that we consider a vote for ending debate on this bill to be a vote for socialized medicine.”

“The voters of Virginia sent a message loud and clear in our recent elections that we don’t favor the extreme Obama agenda,” said state Senator Steve Martin, chairman of the Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition. “There is little that could be more harmful to our liberty and quality of life than the passage of legislation that leads to government-run health care.”