THE NEW KERRY ADS - TNR

[Bombtrack]

04.20.04


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?

posted 09:55 a.m.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/campaignjournal

[eyesroll]

1. There's an upper-income, educated, wine-sipping class in Wisconsin?

OK, so I'm a college graduate who likes wine.

But there aren't a lot of rich Dems in Wisconsin. Some, yes, but why, out of all of the swing and blue states in the entire country, does he choose Wisconsin? Illinois would bring in more, I think.

[heidiho]

2. Hey, my husband and I are upper-income, educated, wine-sipping

and we live in Wisconsin so watch it!

However, not all of us are here by choice!

[eyesroll]

5. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying there are none

Like I said, I fit two of those above categories (and we're doing well financially, but we don't hit "upper income"). And I'm not criticizing anyone who is.

(I should add I'm here by choice.)

But there aren't a lot of $2,000 Democratic donors in WI, and if Kerry's going to concentrate his $ efforts in only a few states, there are better choices.

Here are some figures for WI:

http://www.opensecrets.org/states/summary.asp?state=WI

By comparison, IL:
http://www.opensecrets.org/states/summary.asp?state=IL

[Irishladdie]

3. I think your right about him

Not spending his money. I think his reason is this, when the going gets tough in September and October he wants to have plenty of money flow to Advertise.

[mondo joe]

4. Yup - wine sipping and watching Meredith Baxter Birney movies

Yup - wine sipping and watching Meredith Baxter Birney movies - that's how the upper class spends its time.

Maybe some day the lower classes will have cable tv and they can watch Lifetime too!

[Bombtrack]

6. bump

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