The $250,000 buy continues a marked change in Landrieu’s tone. Landrieu ad distances her from ACA

Sen. Mary Landrieu, the vulnerable Louisiana Democrat, tried Wednesday to distance herself even further from both Obamacare and President Barack Obama in the first television commercial of her reelection campaign.

The $250,000 buy continues a marked change in Landrieu’s tone from the start of the year and speaks to how devastating Democrats realize the health care overhaul may be to their hopes of holding the Senate.


Built around news clips, the 30-second ad highlights legislation Landrieu introduced to let people keep their health care plans after the public outcry over hundreds of thousands of cancellations.

Landrieu tries to pin the broken promise that Americans could keep their plans if they like them squarely on the president, not on the congressional Democrats who espoused the same talking point.

“Senator Landrieu says President Obama needs to stick to his word,” a local news anchor says in the commercial.

This is the first ad run by a Democrat touting efforts to fix the law. Party strategists say polls show swing voters appreciate a solutions-oriented message more than the full repeal supported by many Republicans.

Notably, Landrieu is running the ad in six Louisiana markets — Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria, Shreveport and Monroe — but not New Orleans, where Obama remains immensely popular among African-Americans, a constituency the senator desperately needs to turn out in a non-presidential election for her to survive.

Landrieu even takes credit for Obama’s announcement that states and insurance companies could renew individual health plans for another year.

“What I’ve said to the president is, you told them that they could they keep it,’” Landrieu, wearing a cross around her neck, is shown telling a local affiliate.

“I’m fixing it,” she’s then shown saying on CNN. “And that’s what my bill does. And I’ve urged the president to fix it.”

“This is a promise that you made,” she says in a third clip. “This is a promise that you should keep.”

Landrieu, unsurprisingly, does not acknowledge being the pivotal vote for the problematic and unpopular law in her ad. But conservative outside groups have spent more than $1 million over the last month highlighting this for voters.

Recent polls have shown Obamacare taking a toll and Landrieu’s approval slipping. She won in 2002 and 2008 with only 52 percent of the vote.

But, more than any other targeted Democrat, Landrieu has also aggressively defended the law.

“I am proud of my support for the Affordable Care Act, whether my opponents want to call it ACA or Obamacare, I voted for it,” she told POLITICO in March. “I’m glad I voted for it.”