GOP's ad blitz targets 2 Ariz. Dems

National Republicans, getting a jump on 2014, are sending two trucks carrying campaign billboards around Arizona targeting congressional Democrats they believe are vulnerable in the midterm elections.

The ads attack U.S. Reps. Ron Barber and Ann Kirkpatrick and seize on President Barack Obama's health-care program and recent controversy over the Internal Revenue Service.

Arizona is a top priority for Republicans, after the party lost all three of the state's toss-up congressional races last year, handing Democrats a majority of the state delegation. The billboard blitz is part of a National Republican Congressional Committee initiative to go after seven House members across the country, including Barber and Kirkpatrick, whose toss-up districts went for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney last year.

"The point of these is a very public display of how highly we are targeting these districts," Annie Kelly, an NRCC spokeswoman, told The Arizona Republic from the party's offices in Washington on Tuesday.

The billboards, along with a recent spate of online ads, represent a trickle of money that is expected to turn into a deluge by next year.

The ads are meant to drive home that Barber and Kirkpatrick are too liberal for their constituents, said Kelly, who already is traveling to Arizona to recruit opposition candidates. The ads warn that the members of Congress will "put the IRS in charge of your health care" because they voted against repealing "Obamacare" and because the IRS will play a role in enforcing rules in the health-care law.

Spokespeople for Kirkpatrick and Barber said the GOP attacks are off base.

"These folks have no clue about rural Arizona," said Jennifer Johnson, spokeswoman for Kirkpatrick of Flagstaff. "While (Republicans) were gathering in Phoenix to launch a traveling circus, Congresswoman Kirkpatrick was hard at work in her district, honoring our veterans and talking jobs and economic development with small-business owners."

Barber spokesman Rodd McLeod said the Tucson Democrat is trying, along with some Republicans, to change controversial aspects of the Affordable Care Act.

Barber signed on to three such bills, which McLeod said the Republican Party should focus on passing instead of putting splashy billboards on the road.

"They should be focused on trying to deliver more value to Arizonans than a cheap political stunt," McLeod said.

Arizona's third swing-district Democrat, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, was not included in the blitz -- her district leans further left and supported Obama -- but the Republican campaign committee has pledged to target her with other efforts.

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