GOP groups are starting to turn their attention to Bernie Sanders, with super PACs saying his campaign is growing enough that they're taking him seriously.
Most of the attacks center around Sanders' avowed stance of being a democratic socialist, reports
The Wall Street Journal, even though they're leaving out the word democratic.
Rival candidate Hillary Clinton hasn't addressed the socialist claims, which may not play against Sanders in a Democratic primary but could become an issue should he win the nomination and head into the general election.
According to a Boston Globe poll, nearly one-third of Democrats in New Hampshire, where Sanders won by a large margin, said they identify as socialists.
However, the term doesn't play well with conservative voters.
Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue, the day after the election, said Sanders' views are "misguided," and wrote that "socialism is a wrong and dangerous path for America. It's failed everywhere it's ever been tried, bringing shared misery instead of shared prosperity."
And the super PACs are starting to react as well.
The GOP group
America Rising Squared released an ad on Thursday that not only uses the world "socialist," but shows Soviet flags and terrorists, as well as an image of Sanders praising Cuban Communist dictator Fidel Castro.
Another ad, from
super PAC Future45, being released on Friday, spotlights many of Sanders' key agenda items, including his call for a $15 per hour minimum wage, free college and health care, and higher taxes for banks and corporations, and ends with the Vermont senator saying "Yes, we will raise taxes, yes we will."
Dan Conston, senior adviser to Future45, told The Wall Street Journal that the ad does not spotlight Sanders' agenda, but rather aims at him to spotlight his plans.
"No one took Obama seriously at first when he ran in 2008," said Conston. "And we're not going to make that mistake."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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