Senator Chuck Grassley’s re-election campaign unveiled its first television commercial of the year yesterday:
Rough transcript by me:
Unidentified woman: “Tightwad.”
Unidentified woman: “Penny-pincher.”
Unidentified man: “He’s frugal.”
Unidentified man: “Blunt.”
Unidentified man: “Straight-talking.”
Unidentified woman: “One of us.”
Female voice-over: Chuck Grassley visits every county every year to stay in touch. He’s a farmer and a senator. He’ll do what needs to be done. He’s just like Iowa. Chuck Grassley works … and he never forgets he works for us.
Grassley: I’m Chuck Grassley for Iowa, and I approved this message.
Once Roxanne Conlin went up on television, I figured it wouldn’t be long before Grassley’s campaign responded. He has more than $5 million in the bank and can probably afford to run television commercials from now until November.
Although this commercial doesn’t mention Grassley’s likely Democratic opponent in the general election, I infer from the language in this ad that he’ll run against Conlin as a rich, free-spending lawyer who’s not “one of us.”
This doesn’t seem like a strong commercial to me, but it shows Grassley recognizes he can’t afford to be seen as the candidate representing special interests. The female voice-over suggests to me that Grassley knows he needs to shore up support among women. The most recent Rasmussen poll showed Conlin trailing narrowly among women, and the most recent Research 2000 poll for KCCI showed Conlin slightly ahead of Grassley among women.
Grassley will be hard-pressed to defend his “penny-pincher” reputation when he has voted for every blank check for war and the Wall Street bailout. He also voted for every Bush tax cut for the wealthy, which massively increased our national debt and budget deficits. In the current fiscal year, “a staggering 52.5 percent of the benefits [from the Bush tax cuts] will go to the richest 5 percent of taxpayers. Meanwhile, Grassley voted against many policies that benefit hard-working Iowans, like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
Swing State Project readers, please share your thoughts on this commercial and the campaign.
That Conlin is going to absolutely hammer Grassley on his Lilly Ledbetter no vote. I don’t necessarily consider myself a feminist, but I just don’t understand how somebody can be against something as fair and just as equal pay for equal work.
In 2002, Democrats gerrymandered Barr into a district with John Linder. One of the ads from Barr brought up Barr’s apparent lack of a sense of humor. Some phrases I remember:
“He never smiles. He’s like a bulldog.”
“Terrorism is daydly [that’s how it was pronounced] series.”
“The morals in this country are in serious trouble.”
“My high taxes are a serious problem.”
Worked really well. Or not.
Roxanne is going to have to promise to have impeccable constituent services in order to convince your independent/swing voter that she is worthy of taking over this seat.
Good ad. Nothing memorable, but good enough to do its job. It’s about trying to remind people who’ve always voted for Grassley why they’ve liked him, and tie it into current voter concerns about government spending.
Conlin’s ad, which I saw but didn’t before comment on, also was a good intro piece for her needs.
They’re both smart not to mention each other yet. Iowans will get pissed to see 5-6 months of attack ads. Best to wait until late summer for that.
Grassley, by the way, ran attack ads on Jean Lloyd-Jones in 1992 even as he was coasting to a landslide, so he’s not shy even when not seriously threatened. I don’t know if he did the same in 1998 or 2004 as I lived in D.C. those years and I wouldn’t have paid attention to what were easy reelections for him, but based on 1992 alone you can bet Grassley will hit Conlin hard eventually this year.
I’ll be curious to see what attack narrative Conlin settles on in hitting Grassley. I think there are a variety of very different approaches, and I can’t begin to guess what would be most effective. And how she defends herself against Grassley’s attacks is, I think, even more important than what she says about Grassley.