The California Republican Party seemed to hit political paydirt in a YouTube ad that pilloried the Service Employees International Union for "bullying state leaders in the budget process."
The ad featured footage of an angry woman telling lawmakers that union members would work to defeat lawmakers who didn't vote their way.
It turns out that the woman portrayed as an SEIU union leader in the commercial is a home health care worker from Fresno named Lisa Brown, who works for the state by caring for her son who has Down syndrome.
Now Brown is calling on Republicans to pull the ad and "apologize for its content."
"I am the mother and care provider for a sweet young man with developmental disabilities who doesn't comprehend the implications of budget cuts on the table in Sacramento," Brown said a letter to the state Republican Party.
Brown, who is an SEIU member but not a union official, said: "Your attempt to label me a 'union bully' would be hilarious if it weren't so dangerous to people that I love.'"
The GOP ran the video to counter a $1 million SEIU advertising blitz featuring a television commercial that urges lawmakers to consider taxes on oil extraction, cigarettes and alcohol to avoid social services cuts.
In the selected clip in the GOP ad, Brown hardly treads easily on lawmakers:
"We helped to get you into office, and we got a good memory," she says angrily at a legislative budget hearing. "And come November, if you don't back our program, we'll help to get you out of office."
Brown said in her letter that she appeared at the hearing "to speak from my heart and in my own words" on behalf of services for the disabled.
But California Republican Party spokesman Kevin Roberts said the ad succinctly portrayed SEIU political threats against elected officials and will continue to run.
"I'd say the clip speaks for itself. It's an open threat in a public hearing that many Californians are appalled to see," he said.
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