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Michigan’s Two-Faced Democrat

September 8, 2014

A new ad portrays Michigan Democrat Gary Peters as a flip-flopping "chameleon."

America Rising, a Republican-aligned research group, released a 90-second YouTube video highlighting Peters’ willingness to say anything to win over a crowd.

The ad, called "The Many Sides of Gary Peters," is made up of campaign speeches and TV interviews in which Peters appears to contradict himself.

In one sequence, he declares that he is "a businessperson" before the Chamber of Commerce, while bellowing "labor is in the house" during a speech to blue-collar workers.

"You’ll see; I’ll break. I don’t necessarily always agree with the president," he says in one interview, which immediately followed by a speech in which he says, "President Obama has stood with us. He has had our back these last four years. It is time to have his back."

Peters, a three-term congressman, is running in a neck-and-neck race against Republican Terri Lynn Land to replace outgoing Democratic Sen. Carl Levin. After leading for much of the summer, five of the last eight polls have been within the margin of error. Land led Peters by one point in a New York Times/YouGov poll released Sunday.

Peters has a slight lead, according to a Real Clear Politics average of recent polls.

America Rising said Peters’ contradictions and "pandering" could come back to haunt him.

"The differences in Peters’ presentations are so stark, that he’s confusing everyone, including himself. It seems the ‘real’ Gary Peters changes depending on which group of constituents he’s in front of," the group said in a blog post debuting the ad.