PHILIP ELLIOTT
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Senate candidate Gary Peters opposes the Keystone XL pipeline to curry favor with Democratic donor Tom Steyer, according to ads a Karl Rove-backed group started running Friday amid Michigan’s Senate race.
A spokeswoman for Peters, a three-term House member, calls the ads bogus.
The $800,000, one-week buy is the first time the Rove-backed Crossroads GPS has spent in the Senate race in Michigan. Peters faces Republican Terri Lynn Land in a contest to replace retiring Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat.
In the 30-second Crossroads ad, a narrator tells voters that Peters opposes the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport oil from Canadian tar sands through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipelines.
The ad then suggests Peters opposes the pipeline because Steyer, the biggest donor to outside political groups this cycle, also dislikes it.
“One the one hand, the Keystone pipeline can mean good jobs for Michigan workers. Gary Peters voted against Keystone and those jobs,” the narrator says. “On the other hand, Peters sided with a California billionaire who could profit if the pipeline is blocked. Now, that billionaire is spending big bucks to help Peters’ campaign.”
Steyer’s environmental super PAC, NextGen Climate Action, has spent $235,000 in Michigan — a fraction of the $18 million already spent on the race.
“Michigan jobs or a California billionaire? We can’t leave Michigan’s future in Gary Peter’s hands,” the ad ends.
A Peters spokeswoman called the ads evidence that conservative groups are propping up Land so she can go to Washington and vote to protect their tax breaks. She pointed to Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group backed by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch that has spent millions on the race.
“Out-of-state special interests like Karl Rove and the oil billionaire Koch brothers have spent more than $8 million trying to buy the election for Terri Lynn Land so she doesn’t have to defend their shared agenda in a debate,” Peters spokeswoman Haley Morris said.
“Michiganders just can’t trust Terri Lynn Land when she is hiding behind bogus special interest attacks and won’t agree to debate the issues.”
Advocates say the Keystone project would create thousands of jobs but environmentalists warn of possible spills. The project has become a major flashpoint alongside the larger debate over carbon emissions, drilling policies and tax breaks for energy companies.
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