'Dirty Little Secrets' ad taps Salazar on pork, spoofs Craig
April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News
Published October 3, 2007 at midnight
A new TV commercial aimed at exposing what the producers call a disturbing relationship between Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar and fatty meat producers will air Thursday in Denver.
Titled "Dirty Little Secrets," the commercial is a spoof of Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig's restroom scandal.
The ad features a senator in a bathroom stall tapping his foot to signal that he's ready to receive political contributions from the pork industry.
The political ad targets senators drafting the Farm Bill, including Salazar, a Democrat. The Farm Bill is up for reauthorization in the Senate.
The TV commercial was created by the Physician Committee For Responsible Medicine and seeks to spotlight contributions from the agricultural industry's political action committees.
"Senators take millions from corporations that produce bacon, burgers, and other fatty foods," said Neal Bernard, president of the physicians group. "Then Congress buys up these unhealthy products and dumps them on our school lunch programs."
Stephanie Valencia, spokeswoman for Salazar, said the senator hasn't seen the TV commercial.
She dismissed its assertions, saying Salazar's work on the Farm Bill is not influenced by campaign contributions.
A Senate committee is currently in close-knit negotiations on the bill.
Salazar, she said, is pushing his Senate colleagues to invest more in Colorado farmers and ranchers and in the nutritional programs in the bill.
"The senator cares about the health and well-being of our children and the access to healthy foods they have at school," Valencia said.
The political spoof will air on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. MDT and will be shown in Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, South Carolina and Arkansas.
It can also be watched online at www.StopChildhoodObesityNow.org.
The watchdog group charges that "agribusiness" political action committees have given more than $5 million over the past four election cycles to members of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Campaign finance reports show that Salazar has received nearly $32,000 in contributions from farm PACs — ranking 17th on a list of 21 senators led by Georgia's Saxy Chambliss at $805,359.
Between 1995 and 2004, more than $51 billion in federal agricultural subsidies went to producers of sugar, oil, meat, dairy, alcohol and feed crops to be used to fatten cows and other farm animals, according to the physicians group based in Washington, D.C.
Figures show that in 2005 Tyson Foods, the nation's largest meat producer, received $46.6 million in USDA contracts, said Jeanne McVey, spokeswoman for the physician group.
The watchdog organization is urging Congress to overhaul the Farm Bill and shift more funding to producers of healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables to help combat childhood obesity.
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