National Nurses United Jumps Into Nev. Race With Biggest Ever Union Campaign Expenditure

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6502/national_nurses_united_calls_out_angles_extreme_views_with_200000_ad_c/

Monday October 4 3:15 pm

By Lindsay Beyerstein

Calls out Rep. Sharron Angle’s extreme right views in $200,000 TV ad campaign

National Nurses United (NNU), the self-declared "RN Super Union," today kicked off a major ad campaign against Nevada Republican senate candidate Sharron Angle.The $200,000 campaign is the largest ever expenditure on a political race by a single union. The latest polls show Angle in a dead heat with incumbent Harry Reid.


U.S. Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle speaks during the Nevada Republican Party 2010 State Convention at the Green Valley Ranch Station Casino on July 9, 2010 in Henderson, Nev. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)


The centerpiece of the NNU's campaign is a set of four 15-second television ads based on the theme of "Wrong Angle." The ads highlight Angle's extreme statements on healthcare, job creation, and education. The visuals push the angle metaphor: A ski jumper wipes out, a house slides off a cliff. These images are juxtaposed with clips of Angle calling for the privatization of Medicare and Social Security, opposing mandatory insurance coverage for pregnant women because " not going to have any more babies," or asserting that job creation is none of the government's business.

The union hopes the ads, which wil air at the beginning and end of popular programs like Oprah and Ellen, will reach hundreds of thousands of Nevadans during the next two weeks. NNU's Donna Smith says ads are targeted to reach voters who are sympathetic to the nurses' values of caring, compassion and community—particularly female voters. "Women are super important in this election," Smith says. "Nurses are keying into women's issues, which are also patient isses."

Angel Kennedy, a registered nurse, is a pediatric intensive care nurse and a NNU representative in Reno. She says Angle's rhetoric offends her as a nurse and as a mother. She finds Angle's views on autism particularly troubling. Angle is opposed to mandatory insurance coverage for autism treatments. Kennedy has seen firsthand how important early intervention is for autistic children.

FULL story at link.