TNR - Ryan Lizza - THE NEW KERRY ADS: The Kerry campaign released three new ads yesterday. These are not the anticipated biographical spots introducing John Kerry to battleground-state voters. Instead, these ads are all aimed at upscale liberals, especially women, and deal with issues like abortion, the environment, and the judiciary. They all use the familiar Bob Shrum rhetoric about fighting, and they will run on some cable news networks and on Bravo and Lifetime, two channels that appeal to the Democratic Party's upper-income, educated, wine-sipping class. The only states targeted are Washington, Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey, and California. The latter three are the anchors of Kerry's electoral college strategy, but he's not running these spots to firm up his base. Unlike most of the ads out there right now these commercials are strictly about fundraising. They all end with an appeal for viewers to "log on, call, contribute."
It seems odd that Kerry would be airing these ads in these states at this moment, but it suggests that after raising more than $40 million last month, the campaign believes that there are lots more hard dollars to be wrung out of Bush-hating Democrats in blue states. It's almost as if they have adopted a scaled back version of the Trippi/Dean dream of collecting $100 from one million voters. The question is: When is Kerry going to stop raising money and start spending it? |
