Ad watch: Did Devin Nunes ‘vacation on the taxpayers dime,’ as Democrat’s ad says?

Democrat Phil Arballo took out his first major advertisements against Rep. Devin Nunes on Tuesday, placing three ads that portray Arballo as a longtime resident of the area who will fight for health care coverage more than Nunes.

Arballo, a financial adviser who has not run for election in the past, is running one ad on TV and two online.

Nunes, R-Tulare, has held his seat in Congress for nearly two decades, and until 2018 had won his elections by at least 30 points every year. He won by five points in 2018, but the seat is still considered a “safe” Republican seat by nonpartisan political analysts.

The TV advertisement will run 350 times on broadcast channels in the Fresno market, according to Andrew Feldman, a spokesman for Arballo’s campaign, in addition to an unspecified number of spots on cable channels. It focuses on Arballo’s personal story and doesn’t mention Nunes.

The two digital ads are targeted at 120,000 swing voters in the district, Feldman said, and should be viewed 2.5 million times. Both of those take aim at Nunes’ record, one with a misleading claim about Nunes taking vacations using taxpayer money.

The campaign spent “significant six figures” on the three advertisements, Feldman said.

What the TV ad says

“Raised by a single mom, I worked minimum wage jobs to be the first in my family to graduate college.

Now I’m a small business owner, stretching every dollar in this pandemic.

Now more than ever, the Valley needs a representative focused on getting results, not pushing a partisan agenda.

I’ll work with Republicans and Democrats to lower healthcare costs and cut taxes for small businesses.

I’m Phil Arballo, and I approve this message, because I’ll always put the Valley first.”

What the first digital ad says

“Tired of paying the cost of prescription drugs? Thank Devin Nunes. He voted to give big Pharma a $76 billion dollar tax break while they raised drug prices on Central Valley families.

Nunes has their back. Not yours.”

What the second digital ad says

“I’m Phil Arballo and this is the Central Valley.

Where I grew up, started my business, where Cynthia and I raise our two kids. And up there is Devin Nunes, vacationing again on the taxpayers’ dime.

Let’s tell Nunes... the party’s over!”

Analysis

When Arballo refers to being a “small business owner,” he’s referring to his own portfolio of clients. He is a financial adviser.

It’s impossible to fact check Arballo’s claims about working with Democrats and Republicans on health care because he has no prior political record.

The reference to Nunes cutting taxes on “big Pharma” refers to the Republican tax cut signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2017. It cut taxes on all businesses, including pharmaceutical companies, in addition to giving most families a temporary tax cut that expires for most after 2025. Nunes voted for the bill, along with most Republicans.

Feldman said the ad saying Nunes is “vacationing again on the taxpayers’ dime,” refers to Nunes’ several congressional delegation trips. They are trips paid for by the federal government that members of Congress take to meet with foreign dignitaries or other official purposes.

Nunes has been on several congressional delegation trips over his time in Congress, trips that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in total. But the primary purpose of the trips are supposed to be government business, and there’s no evidence that Nunes was not doing something related to his work in Congress on each of those trips.

Feldman pointed to a past article by McClatchy in which Nunes said he had visited an Estonian casino with another congressman and played blackjack “for a couple of hours” on one night of one of those congressional delegation trips. He said he had visited casinos with the other congressman on other trips.

The purpose of the visit was so lawmakers could meet with Estonian defense and economic policy officials as well as members of the Parliament, according to the McClatchy article. Nunes and other officials were focused on cybersecurity, as Estonian-based computers had recently been subjected to a sustained cyber attack.