Democratic group blasts Bill Lee in ad

A group backed by the Democratic Governor’s Association is launching its first ad in the race for Tennessee governor, targeting Republican nominee Bill Lee’s opposition to Medicaid expansion.

On Thursday, Stronger Tennessee, an independent grouped backed by the DGA, released an ad criticizing Lee, who has frequently said expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act would be a mistake.

Lee’s opponent, Democratic nominee Karl Dean, has regularly called for expanding Medicaid to provide insurance to hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans.

The new ad opens with a narrator noting that the state has seen several rural hospitals close in recent years.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” the narrator says. “But Bill Lee opposes the solution to fix the problem.”

The ad also points out that 63 percent of Tennesseans, according to an April poll from Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, support Medicaid expansion.

The ad alleges that because Lee is against expansion, the state will see more hospital closures and thousands of jobs will be lost.

“Lives are at stake. And Bill Lee is playing politics,” the ad concludes. “We need a governor who puts our health care first.”

Laine Arnold, spokeswoman for the Lee campaign, said the new ad is a “disappointing turn in the race.”

“The ad is a rehash of an ad we’ve already seen from Mayor Dean and he took it down after it was refuted,” Arnold said.

Paige Hill, spokeswoman for Dean’s campaign, rejected the assertion that they had pulled their previous health care ad from the air. Instead, Dean’s campaign has been running a new ad pointing out Lee’s support for school vouchers.

The issues of rural hospital closures and Medicaid expansion have frequently come up throughout this year’s election.

Dean says expanding Medicaid would stave off additional hospital closures. Lee, meanwhile, has said rather than expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act— which he said is a broken system — the state and country need to immediately work to lower the cost of care.