'D-Margaritaville': AOC swats away new Times Square billboard attack from familiar foe
A familiar foe to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is back to the same tricks — lighting up Times Square billboards to pillory the Bronx and Queens lawmaker.
On Wednesday, the conservative business advocacy group Job Creators Network plunked down a $100,000 buy to accuse AOC of “rising crime,” “illegal immigration chaos,” “skyhigh [sic] grocery prices,” “out of control energy costs” and embracing “defunding police,” the New York Post first reported.
“AOC is a threat to American small businesses and America’s way of life,” the group's CEO Alfredo Ortiz told the outlet. “Her policies are responsible for the crime, migrant, and economic crises burdening her constituents in New York and around the nation.”
Ortiz is pushing for her Democratic primary challenger Marty Dolan as a "much-needed voice of moderation that will help small businesses and working families in New York City and beyond.
He added: “New York City residents looking to stop the bleeding and undo AOC’s damage should vote for Dolan now.”
The effort mimicked a similar public attack against AOC in 2019 when the same group purchased billboard ads following Amazon's scuttling to build its second headquarters in Long Island City, New York.
Dolan, a 66-year-old investment banker challenging the Democratic incumbent for New York's 14th district, is already taking some shots at AOC's refusal to debate him.
It's an insult to the voters,” he told USA Today. “She said it would be beneath her dignity to debate with us. I think she knows that I would ask questions that she wouldn't have answers for.”
Voters will decide which Democrat will represent them in Washington D.C. come June 25.
Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez mocked the billboards.
“D-Margaritaville,” Ocasio-Cortez joked in a social media post, referring to the Jimmy Buffett-themed restaurant with a Times Square location.
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL.) also came to her defense.
“That’s over here,” he responded in a post.