Republican PAC launches two new ads in 7th

A super PAC with ties to House Speaker Paul Ryan launched two new ads in the seventh congressional district on Wednesday saying former Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski would seek to raise taxes in the district.

Though one of the ads aired by the Congressional Leadership Fund seeks to contrast Malinowski with Rep. Leonard Lance, for whom House Speaker Paul Ryan is holding a fundraiser on Wednesday, both claim that Malinowski would want to raise taxes and increase the country’s deficit by $32 trillion, an apparent reference to the cost of a Medicare for All plan introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Malinowski said during the primary that he did not back the plan, though his campaign website states support for a public option through Medicare.

The claims that Malinowski wanting to hike taxes likely refer to the candidate’s opposition to the tax plan Republicans passed last year, which Malinowski opposes and Lance voted against.

“How do we know Tom Malinowski would make Washington worse? He already did. As a D.C. lobbyist and big government insider, Malinowski played by his own rules, refusing to pay his own property taxes on-time four times,” a narrator says in one ad. “But now, Malinowksi’s backing tax hikes on us and trillions in new spending. That would wreck our economy – but that’s Malinowski, a big-government liberal looking out for himself.”

The other ad seeks to draw a favorable comparison between Lance and Malinowski, repeating many of the same charges made in the attack ad before saying Lance wants more jobs, higher wages and lower taxes.

Malinowski’s campaign has previously said Ryan and the PAC are backing Lance because he votes on the Republican line 90% of the time.