PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – With the November election right around the corner, the airwaves are full of political ads.
Some of them make claims so extreme, you might wonder if they’re true.
Well, instead of just wondering, Local 10 News put them through our “truth test.”
One of those claims is from an ad in the hotly-contested 27th congressional district race, featuring incumbent Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican, versus State Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Democrat.
The ad, from an outside group, claims Taddeo, the center-left lawmaker, is a hard-core socialist.
“Annette Taddeo, spotted huddling with the Miami chapter of a socialist group that supports the Cuban Commuinist regime,” the ad proclaims.
The ad shows a picture of Taddeo at a meeting attended by, among others, the Democratic Socialists of America, a group that could probably fit into a phone booth.
“The fact that this group was part of the conversation, that’s what happens when you have open doors,” Taddeo said at a news conference.
Open doors is the policy at the Second Baptist Church in Richmond Heights, which is part of Taddeo’s district.
“We are appalled that such attacks would happen because the senator was in our church,” the church’s pastor, Rev. Alphonso Jackson. “We open our firms up for all political parties.”
The ad proclaims: “Taddeo joined them to rally support for Soviet-style spending that could bankrupt the country.”
False.
Taddeo supports government solvency and a higher minimum wage, not “socialist-style spending,” whatever that is.
The ad then proclaims: “The revolution won’t be televised, but Taddeo’s socialist ideas will.”
False.
Taddeo has some liberal idea, but no socialist ideas. Her family fled Colombia to escape socialism.
But the ads edit her own words to make it sound like she supports socialism.
“This election will decide if we become a socialist dictatorship,” Taddeo says in the ad.
“This is a community issue when they are interjecting our beloved Richmond Heights historic community, into these horrendous, false attack ads,” Taddeo said.
This attack ad is paid for by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican group out of Washington. It’s meant to help Salazar.
But its claims are so outlandish, it may not change anyone’s mind, or vote.
This ad, basically, is hooey—that’s a scientific term.