Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
The National Republican Congressional Committee has its sights set on defeating Joe Garcia.
The committee released TV and radio spots Wednesday targeting the former congressman. In a new television ad, the NRCC is hoping to paint Garcia a danger to South Florida residents if he’s elected.
“We fired Joe Garcia once because he embarrassed us. But sending him back to Congress could actually be dangerous,” an announcer says in the 30-second spot. “Garcia said its been proven that communism works. But there’s more. Garcia supports the nuclear deal with Iran, allowing $150 billion to flow to the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism, giving Iran a path to nuclear weapons. Joe Garcia: He’s not just embarrassing, he’s dangerous.”
The radio spot — called “You Heard Right,” — follows along the same vein as the television ad. The 60-second spot not only focuses on Garcia’s support of the Iran deal, but also tries to highlight remarks he made about communism.
During a Google Hangout chat in 2014, Garcia said “we’ve proved that communism works” when talking about immigration. The comments were part of larger comment on the Republican approach to immigration reform, according to FactCheck.org.
The NRCC radio spot seizes on the comments, saying “Joe Garcia really did say that.”
“Look at what communism causes: the violent regimes, the murders, the poverty, and the destruction of countries around the world,” an announcer says in the radio spot. “And Joe Garcia makes a comment like that?”
According to the 2014 report by the nonprofit organization, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, Garcia “was actually taking a dig at Republicans for creating more government jobs by spending heavily on border security.”
Garcia, a Democrat who served in the U.S. House from 2012 to 2014, is running in Florida’s 26th Congressional District in hopes of getting his old job back. He faces Rep. Carlos Curbelo, the Miami Republican who unseated him in 2012.
