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Tag: tv ad
WATCH: Grimes Shoots Gun, Is Not Obama

WATCH: Grimes Shoots Gun, Is Not Obama

Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes released a new TV ad on Monday, distancing herself from President Barack Obama and mocking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in one fell swoop.

In the 30-second ad, Grimes explains her differences with President Obama while skeet shooting in an open field.

“I’m not Barack Obama. I disagree with him on guns, coal, and the EPA,” Grimes says in the ad.

“And Mitch,” she adds as a photo of McConnell gripping a rifle at CPAC appears on screen, “That’s not how you hold a gun.”

The ad makes Grimes the latest in a long string of candidates to pitch herself to voters while firing a gun. Even the White House has released photos of President Obama shooting clay targets (he appears somewhat less comfortable with a rifle than Grimes, although he’s at least holding it right side up).

It’s also the latest in a series of attempts by Grimes to distance herself from the president. In addition to their policy differences, Obama’s dismal approval rating in Kentucky — a recent CNN/ORC International poll found it at just 29 percent — makes him a serious liability to Bluegrass State Democrats.

Kentucky’s Senate race remains close, although the latest polls show McConnell gaining strength. He leads Grimes by 5.2 percent, according to the Real Clear Politicspolling average.

Screenshot: Alison for Kentucky/YouTube

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WATCH: Tied In The Polls, Nunn Launches First TV Ad In Georgia

WATCH: Tied In The Polls, Nunn Launches First TV Ad In Georgia

Georgia Senate candidate Michelle Nunn (D) released her first television ad of the campaign Thursday, providing a preview of how the likely Democratic nominee hopes to win in the solidly red Peach State.

The ad, titled “Optimist,” is backed by at least a $55,000 buy on Atlanta broadcast stations, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“Some people ask me why, with all the dysfunction in Washington, I’m running for Senate,” Nunn says in a voiceover. “In the end, I think it comes down to being an optimist.”

“I’ve seen the power of individuals to work with businesses, charitable and religious organizations to make change,” she continues, as the ad highlights her career leading the Points of Light charity. “I know things can be better.”

The ad’s optimistic tone contrasts neatly with the (sometimes literal) fire-and-brimstone rhetoric that has characterized Georgia’s crowded Republican primary. The tight five-way contest has become a mad dash to the right, potentially opening up a golden opportunity for the moderate Nunn to steal what should be a safe Republican seat. Should Nunn win in Georgia, it could cripple Republicans’ hopes of winning a Senate majority.

That helps to explain why Nunn’s ad does not mention the Democratic Party at all (not even her father, Sam Nunn, who represented Georgia in the Senate as a Democrat for 24 years). The only politician aside from Nunn to appear in the ad is former president George H.W. Bush, who inspired the founding of Points of Light and still serves as its honorary chairman.

Although she hadn’t yet aired a single commercial, Nunn managed to pull herself into a virtual tie in the polls with each of her potential Republican opponents. If the new ad campaign starts moving her numbers higher, it will increase the GOP’s urgency to start attacking her in anticipation of a surprisingly tight general election race.

At least one outside group isn’t waiting to find out. This week, the Ending Spending Action Fund — an organization best known for its aborted plan to smear President Barack Obama as a “black metrosexual Abe Lincoln” — began a campaign targeting Nunn for supporting the Affordable Care Act.

Screenshot: YouTube

Pawlenty Doubles Down On Government Shutdowns

Former Minnesota Governor and presidential contender Tim Pawlenty, who made news last week when he suggested government shutdowns are sometimes a good thing, apparently thinks he’s onto something here, making his history of government paralysis a central theme in his second Iowa TV ad:

Pawlenty’s point is that his stubbornness won the day, state Democratic leaders yielding on the contentious issues. But he need only ask his Republican primary rival, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, how standing firm on conservative principles in the 1995 budget showdown with Bill Clinton affected the party in the 1996 and 1998 elections (hint: not well).