WASHINGTON (AP) — A dark money group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence’s ex-chief of staff plans to launch an ad campaign next week to pressure Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran into dropping his support for a bipartisan infrastructure plan.
Moran, a Republican who stands for re-election in 2022, is one of 21 senators who signed on last week to the $973 billion package negotiated with President Joe Biden.
The campaign from The Coalition to Protect American Workers is expected to feature television spots in the Wichita and Topeka markets, The Kansas City Star reports. The anti-tax group was formed in March by former Pence chief of staff Marc Short.
Short said the group worries that the plan will lead to a large tax increase.
It doesn’t include a tax increase but provides $40 billion for the Internal Revenue Service to boost tax enforcement. The ad warns viewers that agents will be “aggressively coming for every dime they can grab.”
Moran is the first Republican lawmaker to be targeted by the group and one of 11 GOP senators who worked on the plan.
He disputed the idea that passing the infrastructure plan will trigger an increase in taxes and said improving infrastructure is vital to the nation’s economy.
