Here's an interesting attack on the campaign of gubernatorial candidate and former Rep. John Kasich (R-Ohio) courtesy of the Ohio Democratic Party: In a new Web ad, the state party highlights Kasich's "love for New York" by noting that he has made several recent media appearances from television and radio studios in the Big Apple as part of his book tour.
The video features clips from several of Kasich's recent stops in the city as Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" plays in the background.
And if setting foot in New York isn't upsetting enough for Ohio voters, in a release accompanying the video, the state party also slams Kasich for alienating "Northeast Ohioans by expressing indifference toward whether LeBron James stays with the Cavaliers."
Republican Meg Whitman's campaign released its first attack ad Wednesday in the race for California governor. The ad labels Democratic nominee Jerry Brown's decades in electoral politics a "failure."
The spot offers a retrospective of Brown's career through the eyes of the Whitman campaign. "In the '60s, Brown enters politics and later serves two terms as governor," the narrator says. "His big spending turns a surplus into a billion-dollar deficit."
The ad traces his career through his run for president in 1992, employing a clip of former President Bill Clinton attacking Brown during the presidential primary.
The release of the spot comes a week after an organized labor-backed independent expenditure effort began with an ad attacking Whitman for her voting record.
The ad offers some foreshadowing of what could be a record-breaking media spending campaign from Whitman over the course of the race. The spot was produced by Texas-based Republican media firm Scott Howell and Company.
Nevada gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid (D) is on the air with his first campaign ad and it's missing one thing: his last name.
Reid, the son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), doesn't say his name at any point during the ad, but it prominently features his campaign logo, "Rory 2010."
Observers noticed that throughout the gubernatorial primary, Rory Reid seemed to distance himself from his father, who faced high disapproval ratings from voters.
It looks like, for now, Rory Reid is staying with that strategy, although Harry Reid's numbers have been steadily improving and strategists believe Sharron Angle's winning the Republican Senate nomination will help return Sen. Reid to Washington.
Rory Reid's website also neglects to mention his last name on its main banner, which reads "Rory 2010."
The bio section also lacks Rory Reid's last name. It's titled "Meet Rory" and doesn't mention his parents in the paragraph about his personal life. "Rory, 47, grew up in Nevada attending public schools, as do his three great kids. He attended Brigham Young University, graduating with a dual degree in international relations and Spanish, and continued his studies there through law school. He and his wife, Cindy, have been married for 22 years," the bio reads.
Otherwise, Rory Reid's first ad is a positive one, featuring children asking questions about the state's future.
The fight over Arizona's controversial immigration law has helped boost Gov. Jan Brewer's (R-Ariz.) standing among GOP voters, according to anew Rasmussen poll.
Brewer now ganers 61 percent support in a three-way GOP primary. That's up from 26 percent two months ago.
Beyond signing the bill into law, Brewer has engaged in a high-profile spat with the Obama administration over a potential lawsuit.
Brewer became governor when Janet Napolitano accepted a position as Homeland Security secretary. She has yet to be elected in her own right.
More from Rasmussen:
Brewer has had a remarkable surge in support since signing the state’s new immigration law and becoming a forceful national advocate of the measure despite criticism from President Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and others.
Eighty-nine percent (89%) of GOP Primary voters support the immigration law, and 66% of those voters favor Brewer.
The 61% support for Brewer is up from 45% last month and 26% support the month before.
In March, before the health care law and immigration issues began to improve her standing, Brewer was in a virtual three-way tie for the nomination. She had drawn primary competition because of her unpopularity amidst the state’s budget problems.
Iowa Republican Terry Branstad borrowed from "Saturday Night Live" for his campaign's latest TV spot, countering Gov. Chet Culver's (D) opening ad salvo with a one-word answer — "really?"
"Chet Culver is criticizing Terry Branstad's accounting practices? Really?" the female announcer says in the spot. It goes on to tout Branstad's record as a fiscal conservative.
Spending is likely to be a central issue in the race.
SNL's Weekend Updated segment had a long-running bit called, "Really!? With Seth & Amy." A spokesman for Branstad declined to say whether it provided the ad's inspiration.
Branstad's new 30-second spot is running statewide on network and cable television. Kim Alfano of the Delaware-based firm Alfano Communications is producing his ads.
Watch the ad and a vintage clip of SNL's segment after the jump.
The blog whose founding editor claimed an affair with South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley has now endorsed her for governor.
Will Folks shook up the race in late May by alleging on his blog,fitsnews.com, that he'd had an "inappropriate physical relationship" with Haley. Her campaign vigorously denied the claim, and Haley went on to win a plurality of votes in the GOP primary and is now facing a runoff with Rep. Gresham Barrett (R-S.C.).
On Friday, the blog endorsed Haley.
After acknowledging that many would be shocked by the decision — "HAVE WE LOST OUR FRIGGIN’ MINDS?" the editorial asked — the editors said the endorsement boiled down to policy:
And the bottom line for S.C. taxpayers is that Haley would vote the right way on the S.C. Budget and Control Board, use her veto pen to reduce the size and scope of government and sign a universal parental choice bill which would (at long last) provide parents with real options and our flawed system with real, market-based accountability. Also, all signs are that Haley would aggressively pursue government restructuring – although it’s probably fair to say that her credibility when it comes to government transparency (her signature issue up to this point) has been pretty much shot.
Oh well … there are plenty of us who can continue leading the way on that fight.
Will Haley cut taxes, too? She hasn’t been as specific on that issue as we’d like related to individual income tax brackets, but neither has U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett – and as far as we can tell his so-called jobs plan would move our state in precisely the opposite direction it should be going.
Given all of this … in spite of our intimate knowledge of her lack of forthrightness – and in spite of the merciless smear campaign her supporters have waged against us over the past month – we are endorsing Nikki Haley in next Tuesday’s Republican gubernatorial primary against Barrett.
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver (D) opened his reelection ad campaign with a TV spot hitting former Gov. Terry Branstad (R) for "cook[ing] the books."
"Cooked books, deficit spending. Increased taxes. Terry Branstad: A past we can’t repeat," the ad says.
Branstad, a former four-term governor, is running as a fiscal conservative
His campaign manager, Jeff Boeyink, quickly responded to the ad.
"There is nothing bright about this ad. It's the same, dreary politics of the past," Boeyink said in a statement. "Iowa voters will remember that is was Terry Branstad who brought open and honest accounting to state government."
The Iowa Republican Party's state convention kicks off next Friday with a speech by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines.
California Working Families has a new TV ad attacking Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman for her failure to vote for 28 years. It's the first ad in the group's independent expenditure effort supporting Democrat Jerry Brown. The initial buy totals $3 million on broadcast and cable over a three-week period. The ad will run until July 3.
The 30-second spot entitled, "Why" features a news conference exchange where a reporter repeatedly presses Whitman on her voting record.
The group bills itself as a coalition of public employees, firefighters and building trades organizations. Spokesman Roger Salazar told the Ballot Box the buy is just the start of what he expects will be a $30 million media campaign over the course of the summer. "This is really just the initial piece," said Salazar.
During the Republican primary, Whitman's opponent, State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, used a similar line of attack in a TV ad.
Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, has invested as much as $100 million of her own money into the race, according to reports.
Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman (R) will spend more than $100 million of her personal fortune on her run for governor of California.
Two days after winning the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Whitman injected another $20 million of her own money into her campaign, the Sacramento Beereported Tuesday.
She has already spent $88 million on her effort to succeed outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R).
Whitman is approaching what New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent on his race last year. During the 2009 mayor’s race, Bloomberg spent $109.9 million getting reelected.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported Monday than in 2007, "an eBay employee claimed that Ms. Whitman became angry and forcefully pushed her in an executive conference room at eBay’s headquarters." As a result, eBay had to pay close to $200,000 to avert a lawsuit.
Whitman faces state Attorney General Jerry Brown (D) in November.
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