Normally, local political advertisements are much to write home about. There's never enough money in the budget to go to far outside of the box or cut multiple ads. But this year, the ads being aired in central Texas reflect how far political communication on the airwaves has fallen for Republicans.
Consider the following TV commercial being aired by HD-50 GOP nominee Patrick McGuinness who is challenging incumbent Mark Strama.
Seriously. Not even kidding. It would be funny if it wasn't almost scary. In HD-47, GOP nominee Paul Workman is running the following ad. What it lacks in authoritarian imagery, it makes up for with burning hellfire and subtle accusations that Valinda Bolton is the spawn of the devil.
That's where the Republican Party in Austin is at- frothing at the mouth with hatred and anger. Every election has negative ads, but for Travis County, home of some of the most educated voters in the state, this takes the cake.
Compare this with the ads being run by Democrats Mark Strama, Donna Howard, and Valinda Bolton. These are focused, positive, hopeful, issue driven messages. And it's why I'm glad that State Representatives like these are the future of the Democratic Party of Texas.
Mark Strama- New Energy for a New Texas
Donna Howard- Vision for Health Care
Valinda Bolton- Crosswalk
Now it's not as if there are no Democratic attack or response ads- but compare the tone. Here's Donna Howard's 'negative' attack ad.
It's like being in an entirely different universe than the Republicans.
Since the first days of her campaign, Hutchison's campaign strategy has been flawed -- something that is evident in the final paragraph of the NY Times profile of the race from over the weekend:
Ms. Hutchison acknowledges that a bigger-than-expected turnout is critical to her pulling off an upset. “I need for the November Republicans to turn out in the primary,” she said.
Good luck with that one, Kay. Even though she's run a poor campaign, Hutchison very likely had a good enough message against Perry to win. Someone with as much money as her has quite likely poll-tested her points, and knows that her message is what specifically moves people off of Perry. Watching her ads below, I can't help but feel that a similar line of attack from a credible candidate would work well.
Despite her poorly run race, her negative ads against Perry are strong. Watch them below, if you haven't seen them already. The first ad has been on television for a while; the second one I saw on TV for the first time last night, during the Olympics
Peter Brown's Third Ad: Community, Focused On Public Safety: Watch
Ah, another Houston ad on "safety". Except this time Pete Brown is Sam Waterston and is going to rig up the Houston Police Department with satellite cameras that are going to track officers on the beat down to the nearest nanometer. I feel like I'm watching a commercial for Law & Order Houston.
There was an opportunity for Parker's ad campaign to get better from the mediocre first entry. That opportunity was not taken. It feels like I'm watching something in which the goal was to insert as many buzzwords that polled well into 30 seconds rather than something with a coherent theme or message.
For 1st class city, these ad campaigns are flying coach.
Well produced, brings a bit more energy to Cole than you would probably see in a forum and highlights her main issues. The logo flying apart is kind of magical.
The following ad is running now in Austin that points out that every publication in town (including BOR) supports a NO vote on Austin Proposition 2.
And in an effective spot that had already been running, the man with something crazy like 85% approval ratings, also says no.
The No on 2 campaign was late to organize, but it has money and stronger validating endorsers on its side which just might make the difference with a huge electorate that is not as bound to the typical municipal voting patterns or influencers.
Below, and in the extended entry, a sampling of TV ads that struck me today. First up, an excellent ad for TexBlog PAC endorsed Democrat Diana Maldonado.
In addition, Cornyn released the fourth ad in his depressing black and white ad series. You'll be excited to know that the tasseled jacket from the Big John ad has returned!
For as much money as John Cornyn has, he sure is spending it in the most bizarre ways, and on some of the most in-effective TV ads I can imagine.
After mucking up his launch by running ads immediately after Hurricane Ike and running them for two weeks statewide with seeing a negative bump in the polls, his campaign unveiled their latest ad.
John Cornyn has moved from a canyon- to a field of cows.
And the best part- here's what the message of the ad is supposed to be according to Cornyn's latest twitter.
Just released a new ad which discusses the economic stabilization legislation passed last night. See it at www.JohnCornyn.com
I don't think cows have much to do with bailing out Wall Street and they are so distracting in the ad (which is titled "Cows"), between them and the black and white film noire, it's hard pulling out any message from this ad.
As Dean Rindy commented on the new direction of the campaign.
"I can't read their minds, but it does seem like a conscious decision to abandon the gauche technicolor Big Bad John cowboy-in-drag look that they went with earlier this year," Rindy said, referring to the campaign's much-publicized video. "Bumptious macho John has been replaced by plain, sensitive, kind-of-sad John. He looks like a 55-year-old unmarried liberal arts professor, hanging out at the corner laundromat, trolling for sadder but wiser divorcees."
Maybe black and white cows and canyons aren't the best way to go to keep yourself from looking old, boring, and bland.
