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The New Hampshire Moms In Ad Defending Ayotte’s Background Check Vote Are Actually GOP Activists

As Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) battles public outcry over her vote to kill a bipartisan amendment expanding background checks for gun purchases, a national conservative group based in Iowa is running television ads featuring seemingly ordinary New Hampshire moms and law enforcement officials defending the one-term senator from out-of-state “partisan” attacks.

But the American Future Fund appeared unable to find voters who agree with Ayotte’s position, as a cursory search of individuals in the advertisement reveals that the supposedly typical New Hampshirites are actually long-time Republican party activists and officials. Polls show that 91 percent of New Hampshire adults support expanded screenings. Watch the ad:

Jayne Millerick is billed in the ad as a “New Hampshire mom” and says “Those attack commercials are partisan and deliberately misleading.” But Millerick is actually a Republican strategist who served as Chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, a New Hampshire Republican Delegate in 2008, and was a member of New Hampshire Women for Mitt coalition in 2012. She is now a professional political consultant.

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Judy Brown, another “New Hampshire mom” from the ad, served alongside Millerick in the Romney campaign and volunteered for Ayotte’s campaign in 2010. In 2013, she was named as the Nashua City Republican of the Year.

Barbara Dutile, a “Law Enforcement official,” is the wife of a Republican Sheriff in Grafton County who was Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) New Hampshire delegate in 2008, campaigned for Romney, and served as an alternate delegate. In 2012 she received an award from the Republican Party of New Hampshire.

The other individuals featured in the ad Richard Crate, Russ Larry, and Christopher Connelly, are all part of a group of law enforcement officials who have backed Ayotte and are featured on her Facebook page.

Since joining 45 other Republicans in opposing background checks, Ayotte has seen her approval ratings plumet and has come under withering criticism from constituents and families of gun violence victims at town halls across New Hampshire.