Just three days removed from this week’s Republican primary election, a new attack ad has been thrown into the mix in the race for Alabama’s open fifth congressional district seat.
Thursday, former Huntsville City Schools superintendent Casey Wardynski rolled out a new attack ad against his GOP rival Madison County Commission chairman Dale Strong.
The 30-second spot challenges Strong on multiple fronts such as his comments on the 2019 Rebuild Alabama Act and his financial backing of the 2004 and 2012 Republican presidential candidacies of former President George W. Bush and now-U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
“He imposed a tax on six-year-olds to fish,” says the ad narrator. “He voted to increase utility bills. He promised not to derail a vote raising Alabama’s gas tax, letting it rise $320 million. He donated thousands to never Trumpers but not a dime to President Trump. We’re not talking about Joe Biden, we’re talking about 26-year career politician Dale Strong. With a record like Dale Strong’s, Joe Biden would love him in Congress.”
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In a statement accompanying the ad release, Wardynski campaign manager Chad Niblett doubled down on the candidate’s criticism of Strong.
“Dale Strong has quite the record from his quarter of a century in politics. It’s not conservative, and it’s indisputable,” said Niblett. “Dale Strong voted to tax 6-year olds to fish. He voted to increase utility bills. And Dale Strong proudly proclaimed he wouldn’t derail Alabama’s gas tax from increasing $320 million dollars. He will fit right in with Joe Biden and Washington’s big spending ways. While families are hurting from Joe Biden’s failed economic policies, Dale Strong keeps on taxing.”
“Casey Wardynski is the only Trump Republican who will fight Joe Biden‘s failed economic policies and get our country back on track,” he added. “We don’t need any more weak-kneed career politicians like Dale Strong.“
In response to Wardynski’s assertions, Strong campaign manager Colin Sudduth said that the ad’s premise was based on “lies and distortions.”
“Wardynski’s latest attack is more of the same lies and distortions from before,” advised Sudduth. “Dale Strong isn’t a member of the Alabama Legislature so had no vote on passing the gas tax. So that’s just a lie. We can also see with our own eyes that Dale Strong organized Donald Trump’s rally for the 2016 Primary and has been his biggest supporter from day one.”
Sudduth went on the offensive against Wardynski over the educational issues of Common Core and Critical Race Theory.
He continued, “Voters are tired of Wardynski’s lies and just want him to explain why he fought to keep Obama’s Common Core in our schools when conservatives in Alabama were trying to get rid of it. We also need to know why he was teaching CRT to our kids with assignments like ‘Explore the Role White Privilege Plays in The Different Interactions Whites and People of Color Have with Community Service Providers, Such as Law Enforcement.'”
The runoff election will take place on June 21.
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
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