2018 election battlegrounds: GOP's Leonard Lance and Tom MacArthur attacked in new TV ads

Herb Jackson | NorthJersey

Show Caption Hide Caption Rep. Tom MacArthur on health insurance vote Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-Ocean County, describes his reasons for supporting the American Health Care Act, a House Republican alternative to Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act.

A Democratic super PAC unveiled TV ads Tuesday aimed at Reps. Leonard Lance and Tom MacArthur, two New Jersey Republicans whose fates in November could determine which party controls the House.

The ads come just two weeks after a well-funded Republican group aired attacks on Democrats in the same battleground districts.

The chief political arm of the Senate Democrats, meanwhile, also booked time for cable ads to help boost Sen. Bob Menendez's re-election campaign against Republican challenger Bob Hugin, a former top executive at pharmaceutical maker Celgene Corp.

The spending by outside groups highlights the extent to which New Jersey voters, often taken for granted in national presidential campaigns, will be inundated with ads during the midterm congressional elections this year.

Not only is Menendez, a Democrat, facing a free-spending millionaire as he tries to recover from being admonished by the Senate's ethics committee, but four of the state's five Republican-held House seats are targets for possible Democratic pickups in a state where President Donald Trump's disapproval rating was 63 percent in a recent poll.

House Majority PAC, which can take in unlimited contributions and had almost $23 million on hand on June 30, plans to spend $465,000 to air a commercial on cable stations in Lance's 7th District, which cuts across the middle of the state from Hunterdon County to Union County.

The ad praises Democratic challenger Tom Malinowski and attacks Lance over the bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Lance opposed that bill when it came up for a vote in the full House, but the ad refers to his support in an earlier party-line committee vote that sent the bill to the House floor.

The ad also says Lance "got state-funded health care, and pension, and a taxpayer-funded salary." An ad released by Malinowski also criticizes Lance for receiving a public pension.

Since 2012, however, Lance has waived the pension he is entitled to receive from New Jersey as a former state legislator. Three other members of the New Jersey delegation, Democrats Bill Pascrell Jr. of Paterson, Albio Sires of West New York and Bonnie Watson Coleman of Ewing, do get state pensions on top of their $174,000 congressional salaries.

Lance released his first campaign ad on Tuesday as well. In it, a narrator calls Lance a "trusted leader" and two unnamed constituents say he is "bipartisan."

That's a label Lance has embraced in the current Congress as a member of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, a group co-chaired by Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-Wyckoff. Made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, the group recommended compromises on various issues, including health care and taxes, that were rejected by the Republican House leadership.

House Majority PAC also said it was spending $400,000 on two ads to run on cable systems and Philadelphia broadcast stations in MacArthur's 3rd District, which is roughly split between Burlington and Ocean counties.

MacArthur not only voted for the health insurance bill, he helped revive it when the bill stalled in the House in spring 2017 by negotiating changes that won the support from the arch-conservative House Freedom Caucus.

One of the ads, titled "Angry," uses clips of MacArthur being confronted over the bill at town hall meetings in his district. The other ad highlights how MacArthur was the only member of the New Jersey delegation to vote for the sweeping tax overhaul in December that put a new $10,000 cap on the federal deduction for state and local tax payments.

"MacArthur's vote means we can't deduct all of our local, state and property taxes," the ad says. "That's really bad for New Jersey."

New Jersey, New York and two other states are suing to overturn the tax law, saying the restriction on the deduction is unconstitutional. In that lawsuit, New Jersey revealed that the new cap would cost state residents an extra $3.1 billion a year, but 60 percent of that cost is paid by families making $250,000 or more a year, the richest 1.5 percent of all state residents.

The spending in the 3rd and 7th districts comes two weeks after a Republican super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, unveiled its own ads attacking MacArthur's opponent, Andy Kim of Bordentown, and Malinowski, the Rocky Hill Democrat facing Lance.

House Majority PAC and the Congressional Leadership Fund can each take in unlimited contributions as long as they do not coordinate their spending with candidates or their campaigns.

In the Senate race, Republicans on Monday pointed to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's $117,000 purchase of ad time on cable channels as a sign of Menendez's weakness and Democrats' difficulties this year. On Tuesday, the DSCC added another $340,000 in the New York market.

"Expensive races in Florida and New Jersey are already taking up precious resources, so if you are a red-state Dem, you should start pleading your case" with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, said Katie Martin, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

David Bergstein, a spokesman for the DSCC, said that while Hugin has spent nearly $11 million already, "using the fortune he made raising the costs of prescription drugs," Menendez's campaign waited to go on the air "until their ads would have maximum impact in the closing weeks of the election."

More: Midterm 2018 elections: GOP super PAC ad praises Leonard Lance, hits Tom Malinowski

More: When it comes to impeaching Trump, Democratic House candidates are in no rush