Washington Post fact checker: Attack ad against McCaskill is "smear campaign"

Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler gives the National Republican Senatorial Committee's attack ad against Claire McCaskill and her husband three pinocchios and says it is time the committee "retired this smear campaign."

Don't expect that to happen.

The ad says that McCaskill and her husband, Joseph Shepard, founder of Sugar Creek Capital, a company that receives state and federal subsidies for low income.



The NRSC ad makes it appear that the couple is pocketing millions of dollars in taxpayer money.

“Since she joined the Senate, McCaskill’s husband received $131 million in federal subsidies — subsidies that let the McCaskills pocket up to $22 million. …Claire McCaskill: She gets rich, you pay.”

The Post article notes that the attack ad is taken from a Kansas City Star article, but differed from the Star by failing to note, as the Star did, that the federal payments did not go directly to Shepard, but covered the costs of the housing, then the remaining money was distributed to Shepard and other investors.

The NRSC ad also conveniently ignored a couple of other findings from the Star's article:

There’s no evidence that McCaskill played any part in directing federal funds to businesses affiliated with her husband.” 

“McCaskill’s husband is a limited partner in the vast majority of the housing projects that receive federal funds, meaning that he isn’t responsible for day-to-day operations and has no say in the distribution of profits, which is limited by law.

The Post article concludes by noting "Republicans should retire this smear campaign and move on toward a debate on the issues."