The country’s largest teachers union on Thursday launched a campaign assault on Congressman Roger Marshall, criticizing the U.S. Senate hopeful for opposing money for COVID-19 medical supplies as well as money for the U.S. Postal Service.
The National Education Association is spending at least $712,000 in network and cable television broadcasting that started Thursday and will run through Sept. 3, according to Medium Buying, a Columbus, Ohio, firm that tracks political ads.
The ads are running in the Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita markets. One ad pairs Marshall with Congressman Steve Watkins, who lost his primary earlier this month in the 2nd District after he was charged with voter fraud.
The ad targets Marshall — and Watkins — for opposing money that would pay for medical supplies for frontline workers battling COVID-19, small business loans and more money for the U.S. Postal Service.
The money was included in a $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed by the House in May.
NEA officials said the ads focus on parts of the bill important to Kansans, including support for first responders, the postal service, and small businesses.
Marshall did not vote on the bill because he was in the last day of a self-imposed quarantine after working in the field to treat Kansans with COVID-19.
The ad is based on a news release Marshall’s office sent out May 15 calling the legislation “nothing more than a liberal wish list.”
On Twitter, Marshall called the bill a “$3 trillion boondoggle” that “bails out fiscally irresponsible states” and “discourages people from going back to work.”
The bill would have provided $500 billion for state governments to address COVID-19 and extended expanded unemployment benefits through January instead of cutting them off at the end of July.
The Marshall campaign says the ads ignore his record on the issue.
Spokesman Eric Pahls points out that Marshall voted for a COVID-19 relief bill in March that provided $8.3 billion to deal with the pandemic.
Pahls said Marshall worked with the White House to make sure that personal protective equipment, including two ventilators, 550,000 masks and 13,000 Tyvek suits, were shipped to coronavirus hot spots in the state.
Marshall, he said, also was supportive of the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program that went to businesses to help them ride out the economic storm resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
The congressman has been in a fight with Democratic nominee Barbara Bollier over his most recent vote opposing $25 billion for the post office.
“Since coming to Congress, Dr. Marshall has advocated for bills that would push back on privatization, continue 6-day mail delivery services, ensure door delivery for customers, and put the Postal Service on a path to achieve long-term fiscal sustainability,” Pahls said in a statement.
Marshall has said that House Democrats have ginned up a controversy over whether the post office is fiscally sound and whether it can handle the large volume of mail-in ballots that is anticipated this fall.
He said the Postal Service has $14 billion cash on hand and just made a deal for a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Treasury Department.
Pahls later added, “This is from the National Education Association. How is this ad using teachers’ union dues to help better our education system?”
Bollier has criticized Marshall’s vote on the post office bill, saying he was putting partisan politics ahead of Kansans.
“For so many Kansans, including veterans and people living in rural areas, the United States Postal Service is an essential service and a link to family, friends and commerce,” Bollier said last weekend.
“The USPS deserves our support during this public health crisis, and I’m disappointed that my opponent (voted) against a bipartisan bill to provide emergency funding for the Postal Service,” she said.
