The Hill News

Democrats ramped up their efforts against House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), releasing a new video on Thursday and promising to intensify their efforts to target the GOP leader.

Democrats sought to highlight alleged relationships between Boehner and lobbyists, attacks which Republicans dismissed as another tired attack on the top House Republican.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) released a new TV ad accusing Boehner of doing the bidding of the tobacco and gambling industries in a bid to undercut the Ohio Republican's rhetoric about congressional reform.

“Another partisan attack won’t change the facts: the American people are asking, ‘where are the jobs?’ and Washington Democrats simply can’t run away from their job-killing record," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

Democrats released the ad as part of an effort to double down on their effort to elevate the would-be House speaker in the electio! n.

A Democratic strategist said that the party would begin on Thursday to "starkly and specifically define John Boehner as the symbol" of the GOP. The effort comes as the Republican leader is set to give a speech on congressional reform before the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

The effort will dig into Boehner's time as a House leader in the 1990s and his time as chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

"It'll be full throated but not with the intention of hurting John Boehner politically but demonstrating what the public will get out of Washington is they put Republicans in charge," the Democratic strategist said.

Republicans ridiculed the attack.

"Look, this is the third or fourth time that Democrats have launched an attack against Boehner â€" including having the President of the United States fly halfway across the country to give a speech ‘rebutting’ a speech the House! Minority Leader had given two weeks earlier," said a senior G! OP aide. "It’s weird, it’s ineffective, and it’s getting pretty pathetic.”