In a faith-based move, former longtime Democrat Jo Ann Nardelli announced she was switching to the Republican party in May.
Five months later in a political message targeting Vice President Joe Biden that is getting play on the Internet, Nardelli said she is speaking out for that faith.
On the eve of tonight's vice-presidential candidate debate, Let Freedom Ring Inc. and the Pennsylvania Catholics Network began airing the YouTube video entitled, "Biden Sold Out."
The video, which was shot at Nardelli's home in Newry, shows Nardelli dressed in a red blouse talking to the camera about meeting Joe Biden's sister, Valerie Biden Owens, at a party for President Barack Obama.
She goes on to say how she sent Biden's sister blessed Irish rosary beads when her mother died. When Nardelli met Joe Biden, he told her he had the rosary, she said. The ad then covers Biden's and Obama's support of gay marriage. Nardelli said in the ad that Biden's mother would not have supported that.
"Vice President Biden, I think, he sold out to the system," she said in the video.
Nardelli said she could not longer support the Democratic platform and "had to stand up" for her faith as a devout Catholic. The ad ends with her saying, "The Democrats of yesterday are not the Democrats of today."
The film crew from a news media outlet for different agencies promoting Catholic values spent a lot of time interviewing her for the 1 minute video, she said.
The news media outlet had heard her story and wanted to speak to her about her faith, Nardelli said.
She was not compensated for the ad, she said.
"I just did it because I wanted to profess my faith," she said.
Nardelli, who said the timing was perfect for the ad to come out, wasn't sure if it would run during tonight's vice-presidential debate taking place from 9 to 10:30 p.m.
She said there are five beliefs devout Catholics follow: They do not support abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, human cloning and stem-cell research.
"If you really look deep in your heart, you look for what the truth of what you're taught, of what the church teaches and what [you] believe as a Catholic and Christian, and that's what comes first," she said.
Blair County Republican Chair A.C. Stickel praised the ad spot, and said the issues she addressed in it "resonates with old-style Democrats."
He said the ad was almost the same conversation they had when Nardelli wanted to switch parties.
"Not surprisingly she has been one of the hardest working Republicans of this campaign," Stickel said.
Nardelli, who was a pro-life Democrat, thought she could change the Democratic party from within but the support of same-sex marriage was the "last straw," she said.
Blair County Democratic Chairman Frank Rosenhoover indicated he would have comment after viewing the video Wednesday, but did not return messages left later in the evening.
