A recently released ad from the Congressional Leadership Fund calls out a Democratic congressional candidate in Maine for voting against a state welfare reform bill that prohibits welfare recipients from using Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds to buy tobacco, alcohol, lottery tickets, tattoos and other items.
"Mainers work hard, pay their taxes, so why isn’t Jared Golden looking out for us?" the ad begins. "Golden voted to let welfare recipients use your tax dollars to buy tattoos, tobacco, alcohol, even lottery tickets."
The Maine House of Representatives, in which Golden currently serves, passed the welfare reform bill in 2016. The legislation was the product of a compromise between Republicans and Democrats, and it forbids welfare recipients from using TANF funds to purchase the previously mentioned items. First offenders face a three-month suspension of benefits, and third or subsequent offenders risk losing benefits for two years.
The ad also criticizes Golden’s opposition to GOP tax reform. "Golden even opposed middle class tax cuts that are saving Maine families over $2,000 a year," the narrator says.
Golden called Republican tax reform, which was passed and signed into law at the end of 2017, "fiscally irresponsible" and "a giant tax giveaway to millionaires, billionaires and corporate shareholders."
According to House Ways and Means Committee data, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 will give a tax cut of over $2,100 to a median income, four-person household in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.
"Liberal Jared Golden: wasteful handouts for them, higher taxes for us," the ad concludes.
Golden faces incumbent Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin in the race for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. The second-term congressman won the district by just under 10 points in 2016, but the Cook Political Report labels this year’s race a toss-up.