With new nickname, GOP plays familiar game against Heitkamp

GRAND FORKS — When voters think of Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who else do they think of?

Republican operatives hope North Dakotans think of red America's liberal bogey monsters—Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, a group tasked with boosting the GOP's upper-chamber majority, has sent a parade of press releases for months seeking to tie Heitkamp to her party's leaders, who are believed to be hugely unpopular in right-leaning states.

"Despite claiming to represent North Dakotans, Heidi Heitkamp has gone out of her way to back the liberal policies of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi," one such email reads. "Heitkamp has repeatedly failed to support the policies North Dakota voters want, and folks will be holding her accountable come November."

Perhaps the most obvious example is HighFiveHeidi.com, a website launched earlier this month that critically reviews votes on a range of issues. At the top are stylized images of Heitkamp and Schumer, midhigh five, lampooning a moment both senators shared during an abortion vote in late January. Critics of Heitkamp have called it a crassly timed, celebratory "high five"—a claim rated false by PolitiFact and denied by both senators' aides, who said they were simply greeting one another with outstretched hands.

Read more: http://www.inforum.com/news/4422365-new-nickname-gop-plays-familiar-game-against-heitkamp