All’s fair in love and war — but not necessarily in politics.
Democratic congressional candidate Max Rose is serving National Guard duty and required to hit the pause button on his campaign, but that didn’t stop Rep. Daniel Donovan from running negative ads against his opponent on Facebook.
Veterans groups backing Rose ripped Donovan (R-Staten Island) for launching the salvo at a time when Rose is unable to respond.
The groups, New Politics and VoteVets, took issue with a sponsored post on Facebook that seeks to tie Rose to calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“It is cowardly of Dan Donovan, a man who never served his country in uniform, to attack Max Rose while he is serving our country and barred from responding himself,” said Dan Helmer, vice chair of VoteVets, a progressive PAC aimed at helping veterans.
The Facebook ad, paid for by Dan Donovan for Congress, looks to paint Rose as no friend to law enforcement.
“The reckless liberal allies of Max Rose, like Kirsten Gillibrand, have targeted the brave men and women of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” the ad says, linking to a petition to “stand with the brave men and women of law enforcement.”
Rose himself has not called for abolishing ICE, though he has been endorsed by candidates who have, including Gillibrand, New York’s junior U.S. senator.
The ad comes as Rose, an Army combat veteran, is serving two weeks of National Guard training with the 69th Infantry Battalion. During his service, which ends Monday, he is barred from campaigning, talking to the press, raising money or posting to his social media accounts.
Helmer, of VoteVets, called the ad “disgraceful politics” and called on Donovan’s campaign to “apologize to not only Max but every American who put on the uniform to defend our country.”
New Politics, an organization that supports candidates who are military veterans or alumni of service groups like the Peace Corps and has backed Rose, also ripped Donovan for the ad.
“It’s despicable, but fitting, that Dan Donovan would choose to smear Max Rose with negative ads while Max is on National Guard duty and legally prohibited from responding,” said Doug Pardo, senior director of New Politics.
Donovan’s campaign spokeswoman, Jessica Proud, first said that the Facebook ads “began running a week before Max Rose left for his service, giving him plenty of time to respond if he wished,” adding that Donovan’s campaign had “respectfully refrained from engaging in anything new during his absence.”
But Facebook’s ad archive shows that is not true: The advertisement began running on Aug. 10, after Rose had reported for duty.
Shown the archive, Proud said the campaign approved the ad on July 30, but there was a delay in getting them live. For that reason, the campaign has now paused the ads until Rose returns from training, she said.
But she argued Rose’s campaign had been politicking in his absence, too.
“That said, it’s highly suspect that these liberal groups did not coordinate this attack — and we’re calling on them to disclose if they had any communication with anyone associated with Rose’s campaign who simultaneously just reserved a $750,000 television ad buy,” Proud said.
Rose’s camp argued they were just holding time for ads at a later date, and no money had been spent.
“Dan Donovan was caught attacking Max while he is serving our country, tried to lie about it, and now he’s making absurd allegations to distract voters. If he thinks voters are going to believe this nonsense, he doesn’t just need a spine he also needs a brain,” said Jennifer Blatus, a spokeswoman for Max Rose for Congress.
