Reid Pressured on Public Option in Liberal Group’s New Ad

ABC News’ Teddy Davis reports:

A liberal group called the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) is launching a new television ad in Nevada pressuring Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to back a government insurance option as part of comprehensive health-care reform.

The ad features Nevada nurse Lee Slaughter. She says in the ad that she has seen insurance companies cut off care to patients in need — and says that in 2010, she will vote on only one issue: “I’m watching to see if Harry Reid is strong and effective enough as a leader to pass a public option into law.”

Watch it HERE.

The PCCC is the same organization which joined Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., last week in delivering nearly 90,000 petition signatures to Reid’s office telling him to strip Democratic senators of plum committee assignments if they join a Republican filibuster on health care.

Reid’s office did not take too kindly to the petition.

“The only thing Senator Reid is worried about right now is putting together a bill that can get the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley told the Washington Post last week. “He has no intention of stopping by” to receive the petition.

In its push for a public option, PCCC is taking advantage of the fact that Reid finds himself in a tough fight for re-election.

Last week, the Senate Majority Leader launched two television ads in Nevada more than a year before he faces the voters.

Republicans have not yet settled on a nominee against Reid.

Top GOP contendersinclude Sue Lowden, a former head of the state GOP who was the second runner-up for Miss America in 1973, Danny Tarkanian, the son of legendary UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, and John Chachas, a wealthy investment banker.

The ad pressuring Reid on the public option was filmed over the weekend and will start airing Wednesday in the Las Vegas media market on both broadcast and cable.

PCCC, which has touted the ad in an email to 225,000 members, is setting an initial online fundraising goal of $100,000.

ABC News’ Rick Klein contributed to this report.

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Tags: Group, Liberal, Option, Pressured, Public, Reid

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