Kennedy Releases First Ads in CA-04 Race Against Tom McClintock
Panning incumbent as fringe career politician, Businesswoman Brynne Kennedy Highlights Key Differences on COVID-19, Healthcare, Social Security.
In a trio of new ads that will air on digital platforms across the 4th District, Businesswoman Brynne Kennedy is taking on 40 year career politician and incumbent Congressman Tom McClintock over his opposition to COVID-19 relief and refusal to comply with basic public health measures needed to re-open the economy safely, as well as his forty year effort to dismantle the healthcare and social security programs on which medically vulnerable seniors across the fourth district rely.
In “Choice,” Kennedy highlights the different approaches the two candidates took when COVID-19 struck California.
“As businesses were struggling and the state’s first COVID death occurred across the street from the district office he rarely visits, Tom McClintock not only voted against relief1 and claimed his constituents were out to ‘game the system’2 — he actively sought to direct taxpayer dollars to his special interest donors3 and opposed Congressional oversight of those funds4,” said Kennedy Campaign Spokesman Todd Stenhouse. “Brynne took a different approach, repurposing her campaign to get PPE to our frontline healthcare workers5 and connecting local businesses and workers with the information resources they needed — and still need — to safely re-open and recover6. When it mattered, McClintock not only refused to lift a finger for the constituents he was elected to serve, he opposed accountability for federal spending of their tax dollars and actively worked to politicize a pandemic.”
In “Payday,” Kennedy takes McClintock to task for his four decade record of trying to take away the Social Security and Medicare benefits that the district’s seniors have earned through a lifetime of work.
Beginning in the late 70’s McClintock claimed that seniors were “lusting7” after their social security benefits, which he also called “theft8” and “morally bankrupt9.” McClintock has repeatedly voted for federal budgets that would “essentially end Medicare,” opposed lowering prescription drug prices, voted to cut social security benefits and helped write the proposal to lift the retirement age10.
“The fact is, Americans earn and pay for Social Security and Medicare every day of our working lives. It’s our money. That’s why Brynne Kennedy will fight to protect it from Tom McClintock or any politician who tries to take it away,” Stenhouse added.
In “Wear your Mask, Tom,” the Kennedy campaign highlights McClintock’s refusal to adhere to even the most basic of public health guidance on the floor of Congress to his hyper-partisan attacks on COVID-19 relief and accountability measures and career-long efforts to take away the health and income that medically vulnerable seniors paid for and rely on when they retire.
“At the end of the day, this election will be a choice between a divisive career politician who puts fringe-partisanship and big money interests first, and a pragmatic businesswoman and forward looking reformer who will work with Republicans and Democrats alike to put our community first.”
In March, McClintock had his weakest primary performance since narrowly winning the seat in 2008, with Kennedy earning the highest vote total and highest vote share of any Democratic challenger in California. Kennedy has outraised McClintock in each of the last two fundraising quarters, including outraising him by a more than two to one margin in the period ending June 30th, without accepting any Corporate PAC contributions.
A May 2020 survey analyzed by Lake Research Partners found that the CA 04 race will be among the state’s most competitive this fall, with McClintock initially leading the lesser known challenger 46%-40%, but Kennedy taking the lead 46-44 after voters hear a summary of the candidate ballot statements that are mailed to every voter before the election.
Last week, the CA 04 race was the only Congressional campaign in California, and one of just two in the entire western United States to be upgraded in favor of the challenger by the highly respected Cook Political Report.
Brynne Kennedy is running for Congress in California’s Fourth District because she believes Americans can do more together. An accomplished businesswoman and one of the first women to build and lead a successful technology company, Brynne has pioneered new solutions to help employers and workers thrive in increasingly mobile and remote work settings. As our voice in Washington, she will fight to take our government back from the corrupt special interests and will put partisanship aside to put our communities first. Learn more at www.brynneforcongress.com.
1. Congressional Record, HR 6201, 3/14/2020
2. Sacramento Bee, March 16, 2020; https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article241243826.html
3. https://curtis.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Bernhardt-Letter-16.pdf
4. Congressional Record, HR 938, 4/23/2020
5. https://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/standalone/
6. http://brynneforcongress.com/coronavirus/
7. Tom McClintock, Thousand Oaks News Chronicle, 8/29/79
8. ibid.
9. Tom McClintock, Thousand Oaks News Chronicle, 8/18/77
10. The Congressional Record & Committee for a Responsible Budget.