Democrats countering attacks on Sen. Joe Donnelly with ads of their own

WASHINGTON — A Democratic group is fighting back against ads attacking Sen. Joe Donnelly for voting against the GOP tax bill.

Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC working to put the Senate in Democratic hands, announced Thursday it's running $1.8 million in television ads and $600,000 in digital advertising in Indiana and Missouri criticizing the tax package.

"Joe Donnelly won't be bullied," says the television ad, launched the same day Americans for Prosperity started $4 million in ads against Donnelly and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Donnelly and McCaskill are two of the top GOP targets for the midterm elections, and both the GOP and independent conservative groups are expected to make the tax bill a major issue. The political network founded by the billionaire industrialists Charles Koch and David Koch, including Americans for Prosperity, plans to spend $20 million promoting the tax plan in various states.

The Indiana Republican Party has run radio ads criticizing Donnelly for opposing the bill. The party sent out a fundraising request Wednesday to keep the ads going.

Donnelly's campaign likewise sent out an appeal this week for donations to help counter the Americans for Prosperity ads.

The tax package of $1.5 trillion in changes to the federal tax code was approved by the GOP-controlled Congress in December without any support from Democrats.

Donnelly said he voted against the bill because it cuts taxes for the wealthiest Americans while raising taxes on a majority of families making less than $75,000 in coming years.

The Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, estimates the new law will cut taxes for middle-income households by an average of $930 this year, while the top 1 percent of earners will receive an average cut of $51,000. By 2027, 70 percent of people in the middle income group will face a tax increase unless lawmakers extend the law's temporary income tax cuts. (The bill's cuts to the corporate tax rate are permanent.)

A Monmouth University Poll taken at the end of January found national support for the plan has increased since its passage. But the public is still divided in its view with 44 percent approving of the package and 44 percent disapproving. 

Contact Maureen Groppe at mgroppe@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @mgroppe.