Cable car pulled into GOP attack on Georgia congressional candidate

An ad funded by a Republican Super PAC alters a shot of a San Francisco cable car to attack Democratic House candidate Jon Ossoff. An ad funded by a Republican Super PAC alters a shot of a San Francisco cable car to attack Democratic House candidate Jon Ossoff. Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Cable car pulled into GOP attack on Georgia congressional candidate 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

A GOP attack ad in a cutthroat Georgia congressional race features an unauthorized cameo from a San Francisco star: a Powell-Hyde Street cable car.

Officials from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency say they were surprised to see the cable car featured prominently in a commercial that sniped at Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff, portraying him as a torchbearer for San Francisco liberals.

The ad was funded by a Republican Super PAC called the Congressional Leadership Fund, which has ties to House Speaker Paul Ryan. It was first broadcast May 9 on TV in Atlanta and quickly went viral after Bay Area news outlets picked up the story.

“This is a misrepresentation,” SFMTA spokesman Paul Rose said, noting that the SFMTA has a policy against political advertisements. The SFMTA will send a cease-and-desist request to the PAC, he added.

The race for the House seat to represent Georgia’s Sixth District — a traditionally conservative swath of the northern Atlanta suburbs — has pitted Ossoff, a 30-year-old former congressional aide, against 55-year-old Republican Karen Handel. They are locked in a fierce fight to succeed Tom Price, who in February was confirmed as health and human services secretary in the Trump administration.

With the two candidates neck-and-neck ahead of a runoff election June 20, the race has become a critical test of President Trump’s appeal in a district that has long voted Republican but suddenly appears to be up for grabs. Ossoff has raised much of his funding from donors outside the state who want to chip away at the Republicans’ House majority.

Among those donors are San Franciscans who are satirized in the ad. It includes a woman sporting a Nancy Pelosi/Jon Ossoff T-shirt in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, a hippie with braids at Fisherman’s Wharf, and a hipster with a ridiculous floppy hat on Broadway in the Russian Hill neighborhood, along with other caricatures. They thank Ossoff for pushing a West Coast agenda, saying he would raise taxes and cut military spending.

“ISIS? They’re overrated,” scoffs the hipster, who wears a “Cut the Military Now!” button on her lapel.

In the final shot, a cable car rattles down Hyde Street with an Ossoff peace-sign banner Photoshopped to its side. That image struck Rose as a particularly brazen form of exploitation.

“The cable car is an iconic landmark that attracts people and attention from all over the world,” Rose said. “And I think we can all agree that it is best left un-Photoshopped.”

The Congressional Leadership Fund is dedicated to keeping a Republican hold on the House. The PAC hired District of Columbia public affairs company FP1 Strategies to shoot the ad in San Francisco on May 3. It paid $200 for a permit from the San Francisco Film Commission — the standard fee for anyone shooting a commercial, music video or Web content.

One day before the ad was broadcast, FP1 Strategies requested paperwork for permission to use an image of a cable car. Rose said he received FP1 Strategies’ request on Monday — a week later — but the agency has yet to respond.

The San Francisco Film Commission occasionally grants retroactive permits to use images of cable cars or Muni buses, said commission Executive Director Susannah Greason Robbins, but she’s unsure “whether MTA would sign off in this case.”

A spokeswoman for the Congressional Leadership Fund said the PAC had signed its portion of the paperwork and sent a check for $623 to the MTA. Neither Robbins nor Rose had received a check as of Tuesday.

“It is no surprise that Jon Ossoff’s favorite city is rushing to his defense to hide his connections to Nancy Pelosi and Bay Area liberals,” the Congressional Leadership Fund spokeswoman said in a statement Tuesday.

“We welcome the extra attention on our ad and Jon Ossoff’s liberal record,” the statement read. “We worked with the San Francisco Film Commission to obtain proper permits, submit appropriate paperwork, sent a check for the full amount of the invoice, and followed all guidelines in producing our widely praised commercial.”

Representatives from Handel’s campaign did not answer requests for comment.

Ossoff campaign spokeswoman Sacha Haworth dismissed the ad as a “tired stock partisan attack, devoid of substance and offering no solutions for metro Atlanta.”

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan