Posted by Republican candidate Cheryl Baswell-Guthrie is on the air in CD-05.
Associated Press has noted that using Obama as a “Democratic albatross” for Democratic candidates is becoming something of a trend with Republicans. The strategy was not ultimately successful in Lousiana this weekend as a Democrat won a special election in a Republican stronghold for a seat that the GOP held for over 30 years. Bush had received 59% of the vote there in 2004.
The NRCC said that the strategy was indeed effective in Louisiana because Democrat Don Cazayoux had a much wider lead over Republican Woody Jenkins before the ads ran that linked Cazayoux to Obama. So perhaps the above ad will be effective for Cheryl Baswell-Guthrie.
But in the Republican primary?
Republican Wayne Parker is also on the air in CD-5.
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Parker’s is good but OMG who is that woman that acts like she is running for homecoming queen? That is almost as bad as Harri Anne Smith in CD 2. God help us.
Lame!!!
Can we confirm that either of these are actually on the air yet?
I’m in the Huntsville market and I haven’t spotted them. I seriously doubt that Baswell-Guthrie has the money, unless she’s self-financing again (she spent $250K on a lost cause State Senate race, so I wouldn’t rule it out). Her website claims that she raised over $100K by the end of April, but the same press release claims it took Wayne Parker 3 months to raise $177K when a quick glance at his FEC report clearly shows that he didn’t start raising until the final week of the quarter, which makes sense since that’s when he announced he was running.
Anyway, I haven’t seen Parker’s ad up yet, either, but I find the suggestion that his is on the air rather than just on youtube slightly more credible.
Confirmation in comment #3, a reader told me that he had seen Guthrie’s ad on WAFF. That’s what prompted me to look for the YouTube version. Same reader had seen Parker on TV.
Thanks… I guess I need to watch more TV!
I’ve seen both ads (Baswell-Guthrie and Parker) on WAFF (usually during news). Plus, Baswell-Guthrie and Doc Mancuso have run ads on WVNN (radio station that started Sean Hannity’s career).
I’ve seen some yard signs out from each GOP candidate (mostly Parker).
Also, if there’s more than 10 people in a room, at least one of the candidates seems to be there.
I have also seen both ads on WAFF. Baswell-Guthrie’s ad does seem odd for the Republican primary as none of her opponents could be linked to Obama. Then again, she could be playing off voters’ “outrage” against the comments. It would seem to be more helpful if she tried to distinguish herself from Wayne Parker and others running–Parker has name recognition from his run in ‘94.
(side tidbit–in the district, Madison County was the only county Obama carried in the Feb. primary.)
Confirmation? I passed that along to Danny. I started seeing them a week ago. McKee’s got some billboards up in the Shoals. Btw are you sure Guthrie spent $250 K two years ago? I don’t recall seeing a single ad from her that was on TV. I remember Doc Mancuso’s catchy little tune and Bobby Day accusing Sen. Orr of giving some little girl cancer but nothing from her on TV.
I resent the comments made in Post #1, I believe that it is terrible that any female candidate in Alabama is slighted based solely on her merits. As a MAN, I have quietly observed as over the years, female candidates for office in Alabama are scrutinized by some men more closely simply because of the fact that they are women. As a Riley supporter, I watched as Lucy Baxley was called “an empty suit” and as her campaign slogan was assailed as being indicative that she was not capable of being Governor.
Again, Harri Anne Smith has been attacked numerous times on this site as not having a very good public speaking ability. While I agree with that, it has also been said that she “does not have a real grasp on the issues”. This is simply not true, although I don’t want her to win, after three terms in the legislature I’m sure Sen. Smith (or any legislator) knows the ins and outs of Alabama’s issues better than any of us voters.
And now, with Cheryl Baswell Guthrie. A perfetly fine campaign commercial is reduced to her “running for Homecoming Queen”. I suppose then, that any time a male candidate for office runs a campaign commerical that has him smiling, we should say that he’s running for Prom King…I mean come on my fellow men, this IS Alabama after all, but have enough sense to not be sexist (At least towards capable political candidates!).
Makes no difference if Guthrie is male or female, this is the kind of ad that makes me want to throw up. What rock do these candidates crawl out from under? She may be a wonderful, well-intentioned person (I don’t live anywhere near north Alabama so have not a clue about who she is, etc.), but after seeing this ad, ain’t no way she would get my vote.
Wayne Parker is a nice guy, but I’ve got to be honest – his ad is probably dangerous to watch if you’re a diabetic. But it is what it is – a traditional “feel-good” first ad that serves to get the candidate’s name recognition up without offending anybody.
Cheryl Baswell-Guthrie’s ad, on the other hand, is the type of suck-up ad that makes me want to throw up. Obviously one of her vaunted advisors told her that Republicans nationwide are reaming Obama in their ads with success and she ought to do the same. Hey, Cheryl, how about a little less ham-handedness next time and tell us what makes you so conservative. Hillary Clinton used an ad just like you did and she’s not a conservative; just because you ream Obama doesn’t make you conservative. At least Parker let us know that he’s pro-life.
Except that Republicans nationwide have not found success yet with Obama/Wright-linking ads. From what I’ve heard, the poll results were mixed, but it is a strategy that has worked before so they went for it anyway. They were also able to keep Wright in the news for another day with the NC GOP ad, which was not in the least coordinated to help Hillary Clinton in that state. In the LA-6 special election, they tried it against Don Cazyoux and it didn’t work. Supposedly the results showed a one or two point move from previous polls, but that’s within the margin of error in a R+10 district.
The upcoming MS-1 election might be a better indicator of whether the strategy will work, but, in my opinion, the MS GOP messed up by attempting to directly link Dem candidate Travis Childers to Wright. If you haven’t had the chance to watch the “Childers said nothing” ad then you should look it up and do so because it’s pretty darn funny. They show the crazy Wright sermon snippets, then note that “Childers said nothing” to condemn these horrible comments. Never mind that they were made in a church on the south side of Chicago four years ago or whatever it was, Childers apparently should have been aware of them and denounced them when they were made. It’s a tough charge to pull off. We’ll see how it plays out in the runoff.