Sex, lies and DUIs: GOP dumps oppo on Dem House hopefuls

Republican ads are getting personal in the fight for the House majority.

By ELENA SCHNEIDER 08/20/2018 05:08 AM EDT Updated 08/20/2018 10:43 AM EDT

Dramatized police dispatch calls of a DUI arrest. Allegations of sexual harassment. Court filings reviewing “failed” business investments.

Those are attacks leveled against Democratic congressional candidates in a new Republican ad campaign in recent days — part of a growing effort to personalize the midterm elections and disqualify individual Democratic hopefuls early in a bid to save the Republican House majority.

National trends are driving the general direction of the 2018 midterms, fueled by strong feelings about health care, taxes, President Donald Trump and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. But with so many first-time candidates running on the Democratic side — without the baggage of legislative voting records or controversial positions adopted over a long public career — and the political environment tilting toward them, GOP efforts to keep them out of the House may hinge on specific personal critiques, vetting them publicly for the first time.

That’s how Congressional Leadership Fund, the Republican super PAC, is starting its campaign against Democrat Sean Casten in Illinois, blasting him for “mismanagement, fraud, greed” at his company in a TV ad released Wednesday. (Casten’s campaign called it “false attacks” in a statement.) The group is also hammering Randy Bryce, the Democratic nominee in Speaker Paul Ryan’s district, over a drunk driving arrest.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/20/house-republicans-oppo-research-788468