SC’s Graham takes aim at Harrison’s lobbying history in new Senate race campaign ad
Democrat Jaime Harrison’s career as a lobbyist in Washington is now the focus of a new digital and television ad released on Wednesday by Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is seeking a fourth term in the U.S. Senate.
The 30-second ad, titled “Home,” specifically zeroes in on Harrison’s work while a lobbyist from 2008 to 2016 for the now-defunct Podesta Group, a powerful lobbying firm co-founded by Hillary Clinton’s former campaign manager, John Podesta.
Graham’s campaign called the ad a significant statewide buy. The ad echoes an ongoing theme for Graham’s campaign that Harrison and his supporters are not in touch with the values of South Carolinians.
“Liberal Jaime Harrison makes almost $300,000 a year helping his mentor, Nancy Pelosi, elect Democrats in Washington. But he cashed in long before then,” the ad says. “Harrison made a fortune lobbying for the Podesta Group, founded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. At Podesta, Harrison lobbied for a hedge fund that foreclosed on the homes of Katrina victims. Democrat Jaime Harrison. High paid, liberal, lobbyist, wrong for South Carolina.”
At the Podesta Group in 2009, Harrison lobbied for the Fortress Investment Group, a New York-based private equity firm. The firm made headlines in 2007, when the New York Times then reported that then-Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards announced he would divest his portfolio after it was brought to light that the firm foreclosed on people who lost their homes in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“(Harrison) shamefully took money from a ‘horrible, disgusting, slimy’ company and looked the other way,” said T.W. Arrighi, Graham’s campaign spokesman.
Harrison’s campaign pushed back against Graham’s campaign’s claims, saying the former chairman of the S.C. Democratic Party worked in U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn’s office from 2005-’07 and didn’t join the Podesta Group until 2008.
The campaign also said Harrison, an associate chairman and counsel for the Democratic National Committee, earned $160,000 in 2019, not the nearly $300,000 as stated in Graham’s ad. The $280,000 figure cited in the ad was for 20 months worth of income.
“After 25 years in Washington, Lindsey Graham has changed so much he’ll attack a South Carolinian who has lived the American Dream — during a national healthcare crisis,” said Harrison’s campaign spokesperson, Guy King. “Lindsey puts himself first by playing political games in Washington and taking luxury overseas trips paid for by special interest donors to his campaign. If Lindsey doesn’t feel the need to put politics aside to aid South Carolinians suffering, when will he?”
The Senate race between Graham and Harrison has become more competitive ahead of Nov. 3.
Recent polls have the race tied, and Monday the race ratings group Cook Political Report shifted the race to “lean Republican.”
Both candidates also have raised record amounts of cash, fueled mostly by money raised from out of state that’s been then illustrated by the ad battle between Graham and Harrison. The ad buys are only set to intensify as both campaigns reserved more than $1 million in ad time for the month of August.
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
