McKinley given front-page space to defend himself against his opponent’s political ad

The Alex Mooney/David McKinley race for the nomination in West Virginia’s 2nd congressional district is heating up. Mooney has placed ads in West Virginia media and even some out-of-state media (where at least some of the money is wasted). Here is a Mooney ad that recently ran on local channel WTOV in Steubenville, Ohio:

In response, David McKinley who is not a Pelosi supporter, turned to his personal media microphone, Ogden Newspapers, which gave him front-page coverage to deny the charge:

McKinley Speaks Out on Mooney Attacks

Where could Mooney have possibly gotten the idea of accusing McKinley of supporting “Nancy Pelosi’s socialist agenda”?

How about this?* In 2010, in McKinley’s first House election, he ran against Mike Oliverio, who had defeated long-time congressman, Alan Molohan, in the primary. Oliverio was a conservative Democrat. Here is how Roll Call described the Democratic candidate:

Oliverio’s opposition to abortion, gun control, the health care law and a climate change bill, as well as his efforts to distance himself from Pelosi, should make it difficult to link him to national Democrats. However, Oliverio’s conservative positions did not stop McKinley from tying him to liberal Democrats and in particular, Nancy Pelosi.

Here Roll Call described a McKinley campaign ad attacking Oliverio:

Republican David McKinley’s latest television ad in his race against Democrat Mike Oliverio in the battleground 1st district lays out the key points of the “Pelosi-Oliverio agenda.” McKinley’s ad lists cap-and-trade, higher taxes and more spending among the key items on that agenda. . . .

“The Pelosi-Oliverio team. Bad for West Virginia jobs,” states the ad, which is running in the Wheeling and Parkersburg media markets. “Had enough of Pelosi? David McKinley for Congress.”

Except for one important point left out of the McKinley ad. As the Roll Call article points out:

Of course, Oliverio has never actually voted on any of Pelosi’s key policy pieces such as the cap-and-trade bill. That’s because Oliverio is a member of the West Virginia Senate. He won the Democratic nomination in May after beating longtime Rep. Alan Mollohan in the primary.

*Okay, Mooney probably didn’t get the idea from McKinley -- tying your opponent to someone unpopular (as Pelosi is among Republicans) probably dates back to the first political contests. Of course, most on the receiving end do not get their own response channel to answer such attacks as McKinley does.