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Duckworth on Rep. Walsh: super PACs 'know they can buy him'

Republican super PACs are trying to stop Tammy Duckworth’s surge.
(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Republican super PACs are trying to stop Tammy Duckworth’s surge.

The Iraq War vet is running for Congress against Tea Party favorite Rep. Joe Walsh in Illinois’ remapped 8th district, in a key race that Democrats have targeted in their longshot bid to retake the House.

Despite polls showing Duckworth ahead by 10 points, super PAC Freedom Works is pouring $1.7 million in Walsh’s campaign. And pro-Tea Party PAC Now or Never is spending another million.

“I think it’s because they know they can buy [Walsh],” Duckworth told Hardball host Chris Matthews when asked why the super PACS were pumping money into the race. “They have a history of him voting exactly the way they want.”

She pointed to a transportation bill that Walsh voted against. He was the only member of a 19-person state delegation to vote against it. Now or Never, she said, was adamantly against the bill.

Duckworth also touched on Walsh’s controversial comments in which he argued against abortion, saying the health of the mother is not an excuse because “with modern technology you can’t find one instance” in which a women would actually die.

“I think he’ been going to the Todd Akin school of biology,” she jabbed. “This is a moderate district…they believe women should be trusted to make decisions about their own bodies and Congressman Walsh simply doesn’t."