New ad uses Baron Hill's words against him

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A new attack ad in the 9th Congressional District uses Democrat Baron Hill's own words against him.

It employs video from a town hall meeting that Rep. Hill conducted in Bloomington last year. The topic was health care reform.

But it's Hill's handling of a young lady in the audience that is the source for a new Todd Young campaign ad. "This is my town hall meeting and I set the rules," says Hill in the ad.

The ad uses horror film effects but Hill's words are unchanged. "Where he's letting Baron Hill be himself, a hot head," said former state GOP Chairman Mike McDaniel on Indiana Week in Review.

The ad makes use of a technique that Hill already employed against Young. "Will Todd Young protect Social Security?" says the announcer in a Hill ad. You then see Young speaking at a Tea Party meeting, saying, "Social Security is a Ponzi scheme."

"It's exactly using the words that Young used calling social security a Ponzi scheme," said former state Democratic Chair Ann DeLaney also on Indiana Week in Review.

It leaves Hill with no defense for remarks delivered at the 2009 town hall meeting when a student asked him why she wasn't allowed to record it. Video posted on Youtube by the National Republican Campaign Committee shows the exchange.

"Why can't I film this? Isn't this my right?" says the student. Hill answered the question. "Now the reasons why I don't allow filming is because usually the films that are done end up on Youtube in a compromising position."

It's a strategy that didn't work and before Hill explained it he delivered the line that is the focus of the Young ad, "And you're not going to tell me how to run my congressional office."

Republicans consider it a defining moment. "And, and I'm glad they've harnessed this," says McDaniel, "because if people see this and see the way he conducts himself, it's not going to serve him well."

Hill, through a spokesman, accuses Young of using the ad to distract voters from issues that matter.