CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When political ads are reduced to criticizing a lawmaker's absence from a few congressional committee meetings, it's usually a pretty good sign that they're running out of material. In the case of Thom Tillis, the Republican who is running for the Senate from North Carolina, it's actually something more ludicrous.
Mr. Tillis, who has struggled for an advantage against the Democratic incumbent, Senator Kay Hagan, has decided to use the cudgel of the Islamic State to make Ms. Hagan look weak. He is now running television ads here accusing her of missing several Armed Services Committee hearings, including one in February where global threats were discussed. (Though virtually no one, including most Republicans, were particularly concerned about the Islamic State back then.)
In September, the ad says, she missed a hearing to attend a cocktail fundraiser. "While ISIS grew, Obama did nothing," the narrator says. "Senator Hagan did cocktails. To change policy, change your senator."
Set aside for a moment the basic hypocrisy of the ad, since all candidates, including Mr. Tillis, miss legislative business in order to raise money. (Mr. Tillis, the speaker of the state House, has frequently been absent for crucial votes while campaigning, according to the Associated Press.)
What's truly misleading about the ad is the notion that attendance at committee meetings actually has some effect on national security, or that any individual senator can be considered responsible for missing the rise of the Islamic State. Obviously senators should show up for work, but the real problem is that few of them really want to work when they're there. Leaders of both parties in the Senate and the House have been pressured by their members not to allow a vote on President Obama's bombing of the militant group, afraid of sticking their heads up on a controversial issue before the November election.
What's really going on here is an attempt by Mr. Tillis to change the subject from Ms. Hagan's effective attacks on him for the cuts he has made to education and women's health services, and his leadership in trying to suppress the votes of minorities and other Democratic-leaning voters through a very strict voter ID measure.
Capitalizing on fears of a looming national security threat is an old and often successful Republican tactic. For George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, it was al Qaeda; for their successors, it is the Islamic State, which is being waved like a red blanket in several other races as well.
Its usefulness is one of the reasons why the National Republican Senatorial Committee announced yesterday that it would spend another $6 million on ads for Mr. Tillis in the last three weeks of the campaign, more than doubling its current spending. This race is already the most expensive in the nation — $59 million has been spent so far by the two campaigns and outside groups — but Mr. Tillis has not been able to establish a lead. The most favorable poll for him shows the race tied, though others have Ms. Hagan a few points ahead.
But if several million dollars more can make Ms. Hagan appear to be responsible for the rise of the Islamic State, those numbers may start to change.
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