Corporate Jets: The Next Political Punching Bag

Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 10:33 PM ET

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John Travolta's private jet sits on the tarmac at Grand Bahama International Airport in Freeport, Grand Bahama, Bahamas, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. (AP Photos/Alan Diaz) Original Filename: Bahamas_Travoltas_Son_FLAD106.jpg Diaz/AP

Key Takeaways:

Democrats are expected to frequently use "corporate jets" as a campaign issue, linking proposed tax code changes to "tax loopholes" and portraying Republican rivals as corporate sympathizers.
An early campaign ad employing this strategy was criticized for its insensitive imagery of a jet near the New York City skyline and made a dubious claim about "tax loopholes," which referred to a decades-old depreciation rule.
Despite the ad's poor execution and the candidate's loss, the "corporate jet/tax loophole" narrative is predicted to remain a politically potent and persistent campaign angle.

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Watch for “corporate jets” to emerge as a hot-button campaign issue in the coming months as Democrats seize on a change in the tax code proposed in President Obama’s Jobs Act to paint their Republican rivals as supporting tax-cheating corporations.

It’s happening already. In an ad created for the Congressional campaign of Democrat David Weprin, a business jet is shown flying across the screen as a voiceover warns viewers: “Corporate executive Bob Turner lives the high life. While you struggle to pay the bills, Turner supports tax loopholes for corporations.”