Democrats have hit Dan Brown, Republican candidate for Missouri Senate District 16, with an attack piece in an attempt to mislead voters about the actual meaning of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. In a direct mail piece, Democrats argue that Brown’s Pledge means he supports tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs. In reality, the goal of the Pledge is to protect taxpayers and businesses from tax increases, and does not prevent revenue-neutral elimination of tax credits.

The “No New Taxes” Pledge simply commits a signer to “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to raise taxes.” By making this promise, Brown has taken tax hikes off the table for all taxpayers in Missouri – something Frank Barnitz has not done.

Missouri Democrats also claim that ATR is a Washington, D.C. “special interest group” pushing a hidden agenda. ATR’s constituency – taxpayers – is not a special interest. ATR opposes all tax increases as a matter of principle. There is nothing hidden about the organization’s agenda.

False attacks on the tax pledge are part of a national Democrat narrative and began earlier this year, when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ran ads in Hawaii’s 1^st Congressional District making the same outsourcing attacks on Charles Djou. Nonpartisan FactCheck.org declared these attacks “blatantly false.” FactCheck.org recently ran another analysis concluding that attacks on the Pledge for state candidates “make even less sense.”

“It’s clearly desperation time for national Democrats,” said ATR President Grover Norquist. “Scrambling to elect more big government candidates to the Missouri House of Representatives, the Democratic party comes armed with a boatload of cash to distort and mislead voters about the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.”

“Dan Brown has promised to break with liberal representatives and oppose tax increases,” continued Norquist. “Rather than make the same simple promise, Missouri liberals are sticking to their big government mantra and hoping national Democrats and their union allies can bail them out. In Missouri District 16, voters have a clear choice this November between Dan Brown’s fiscal responsibility and the Democrat's tax-and-spend agenda.”

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