Siblings of U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar endorse his opponent, Gosar responds
PHOENIX (AP) - Six siblings of U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar have urged voters to cast their ballots against the Arizona Republican in November in an unusual political ad sponsored by the rival candidate.
The television ad from Democrat David Brill combines video interviews with Gosar-family siblings who ask voters to usher Paul Gosar out of office because he has broken with the family's values. They do not elaborate.
They previously condemned the congressman's false accusation in 2017 that wealthy Democratic donor George Soros was a Nazi collaborator in World War II.
"It's intervention time," Tim Gosar says in the ad, endorsing Brill. "And intervention time means that you go to vote, and you go to vote Paul out."
Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar on Saturday responded to the unusual ad being aired by his opponent in the race for the seat in northwestern Arizona.
Gosar says in a series of Twitter posts that his brothers and sisters who endorsed Democrat David Brill are disgruntled liberals from out of state who hate President Donald Trump and put ideology before family.
Gosar is a fourth-term congressman for a sprawling district in northeastern and central Arizona.
In a separate video segment, the siblings urge voters to hold the congressman accountable on health care, employment and environmental issues.
Paul Gosar's comments about Soros came in a television interview with Vice News in which he also suggested a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, might have been a liberal conspiracy.
In the new ad, the congressman's siblings describe their decision to speak out as saddening, horrible and ultimately a matter of pride for the family from Wyoming.
"I think my brother has traded a lot of the values we had at our kitchen table," says Joan Gosar, an engineer.
Pete Gosar, another sibling who ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for governor of Wyoming in 2014, does not appear in the ad, though he has publicly criticized his brother's views in the past.
The Gosar children's mother, Bernadette Gosar, was quoted in The New York Times Saturday saying she was "shocked" and "crushed" when she saw the ad.
The rift in the Gosar clan is not the only sibling feud to wend its way into campaigning this year for Congress, as Democrats seek to retake majority control of the House and Senate from Republicans.
In the race to replace House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Democratic congressional candidate Randy Bryce is confronting an ad in which his brother endorses the Republican candidate.
That upset Nancy Bryce, their mother, who has denounced the campaign ad in a letter that was recently made public.