Democratic U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick is launching a $1.5 million ad campaign in her bid to unseat five-term Republican Sen. John McCain this November.
Kirkpatrick's campaign says the six-week TV blitz will concentrate on the Phoenix and Tucson broadcast and cable markets,
The Arizona Republic reports.
The ads will begin airing on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
"John McCain is running a desperate campaign because Arizonans know he's changed after 33 years in Washington and they're ready for new leadership," Kirkpatrick's campaign spokesman D.B. Mitchell told The Republic.
Kirkpatrick's cash-rich ad buy is in stark contrast to that of Kelli Ward, an osteopathic physician and former Arizona state senator who is one of three Republicans hoping to oust McCain in August's GOP primary.
On Thursday, Mitt Romney's lawyers ordered Ward to stop using an eight-year-old "Romney for President" ad on Facebook to bash McCain.
"Your campaign's use [of the ad] is a blatant infringement of 'Romney for President's' protected materials … [You] must cease and desist immediately," attorney Megan Newton of the law firm of Jones Day in Washington, D.C., told Ward in a letter obtained by
Talking Points Memo.
The old Romney spot blasted McCain as the two vied for 2008 GOP presidential nomination, but instead of having the former Massachusetts governor at his desk announcing, "I'm Mitt Romney, and I approved this message" as the original did, the altered version has Ward declaring, "I'm Dr. Kelli Ward, and I approved this message."
The Republic speculates that Ward may have repurposed the old spot because of campaign funding woes.