Republicans are trying to use Brad Ellsworth's attendance of a DCCC "March to the Majority" conference as rationale to level criticism that the Democrat would be "puppet" of Nancy Pelosi and other liberals:
The main event is Wednesday night's fundraising reception at the Sewall-Belmont House hotel on Capitol Hill, for which a minimum $250 contribution is required.
But Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Bill Burton said Ellsworth's day and night with congressional Democrats in Washington should not be construed as a liberal lovefest.
"(Ellsworth) has been clear in saying that if Democrats want to win in districts like his that they have to do a good job of showcasing conservative values," Burton said.
Ellsworth and the other 33 Democratic challengers invited to Washington were selected earlier this year for the party committee's "Red to Blue" program, an exclusive fundraising, mentoring and strategic support program for promising challengers in House races.
The "March to the Majority" reception comes as National Republican Congressional Committee mailers linking Ellsworth to Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are being dropped into local mailboxes.
The GOP committee also has invested heavily in television ads linking Ellsworth to Pelosi.
The mailers feature artwork depicting Ellsworth as a puppet whose strings are being controlled by Pelosi, who stands to become speaker of the House if Democrats take the 15 seats necessary to regain control of that chamber.
"Politician Brad Ellsworth may come with some liberal strings attached," the mailer declares. Elsewhere, the mailer, which also features pictures of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., says "extreme liberal" Pelosi wants to "cut and run from Iraq and give amnesty to illegal immigrants."
