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February 4, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

NEW DAY FOR AMERICA

Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) nose grows so long from “lyin'” that it wraps around his neck in a new ad released Thursday by a super PAC supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R).

The 30-second TV spot from New Day for America, dubbed “Nose,” catalogues controversies that have followed the Republican senator’s presidential campaign and borrows the “Lyin’ Ted” nickname that frontrunner Donald Trump has thrust on his rival.

“Many just call him, ‘Lyin’ Ted,'” the ad begins, as a truly uncanny digital rendering of Cruz’s nose begins to sprout out of his face. Cruz’s growing nose makes a U-turn around his head and wraps several times around his neck throughout the ad.

“Lied about Ben Carson to steal a win in Iowa,” a voiceover continues, making reference to the Cruz campaign disseminating a false report that Carson was leaving the campaign trail on the night of the Iowa caucuses.

“Lies about being the best for the GOP, when polls show he can’t even beat Hillary Clinton,” the ad goes on. “His TV ad about John Kasich? Lie. Stations pulled it off the air.”

The ad finishes with the line, “If Ted Cruz’s mouth is moving, he’s lying.”

The bizarre spot is the work of Fred Davis, the ad maker behind the infamous “Demon Sheep” ad for Carly Fiorina’s failed 2010 U.S. Senate campaign in California, the Washington Post reported.

According to New Day, the ad is part of a $500,000 statewide buy across Wisconsin, where Cruz and Trump are closely matched ahead of the state’s April 5 primary. Cruz leads Trump in the Badger State by four points, according to TPM’s PollTracker Average.

Watch the spot below, but be warned that you can’t un-see it:

Read the original story at Talking Points Memo.

February 4, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

OHIO GOV. JOHN KASICH SPEAKS DURING A TOWN HALL CAMPAIGN STOP BEFORE MONDAY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is portrayed as a boy compulsively sipping water in a new television ad rolled out today by the Super PAC supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich that aims to portray his opponents as carrying out negative campaigns while he is the true conservative of the bunch.

Entitled “Muddier,” the commercial’s portrayal of Mr. Rubio is an apparent reference to his reaching for bottled water when he gave the Republican response to President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union speech.

The ad was produced by New Day for America, Mr. Kasich’s Super PAC and is being aired statewide in New Hampshire as part of a $1 million ad buy.

“As John Kasich has risen, Rubio and Bush have gone negative. Doing whatever it takes to win is not presidential,” the narrator intones.

With Mr. Kasich now threatened to drown, not in political mud, but in the rising polling numbers of his opponents, the ad aims to capitalize on his image as the positive, forward-looking, and mature candidate in the crowd.

The newest tracking poll from the University of Massachusetts out today shows what many had predicted, that Mr. Rubio would roar into New Hampshire with momentum after his unexpectedly strong showing in the Iowa Republican caucuses on Monday.

According to the poll, New York businessman Donald Trump leads in New Hampshire among likely GOP voters with 36 percent, followed by Mr. Rubio with 15 percent, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 14 percent. The poll also shows support at 8 percent for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and 7 percent for Mr. Kasich.

The ad features four men and one boy, all of them wearing suits and all covered in mud. The narrator scolds Mr. Kasich’s opponents and then moves from the five candidates shown in black and white to color images of Mr. Kasich.

The narrator says Mr. Kasich cut Ohio taxes, turned an $8 billion deficit into a $2 billion surplus, brought jobs back from Mexico and China, and cut state spending.

The ad “highlights the positive message John Kasich has maintained throughout this campaign, a contrast to the petty attacks his rivals have resorted to on the campaign trail,” says New Day in his news release.

“John Kasich has set the bar in this campaign for focusing on constructive solutions to the problems facing Americans, rather than engaging in mudslinging,” said Connie Wehrkamp, New Day For America spokesman. “This ad exemplifies John Kasich’s consistent emphasis on working to achieve real results, an example of his true leadership.”

Read the original story at The Toledo Blade.

February 1, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

A super PAC supporting Republican presidential candidate John Kasich released this video accusing rival Ted Cruz of “lying.” NEW DAY FOR AMERICA

January 22, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

OHIO GOV. JOHN KASICH ANSWERS A QUESTION DURING AN INTERVIEW ON HIS CAMPAIGN BUS IN BOW, N.H., ON WEDNESDAY. CHARLES KRUPA/AP

BOW, N.H. — It was a very good week for John Kasich in New Hampshire.

Largely forgotten in the nationwide presidential race, the Ohio governor almost got kicked off the main stage at the most recent GOP debate. But a series of recent polls now rank Kasich second or third behind Republican front-runner Donald Trump in the Granite State, a feat he achieved after months of methodical campaigning here.

The sudden uptick drew the attention of a multimillion-dollar super PAC supporting Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign, which unloaded a new attack ad on Thursday that faults Kasich for expanding Medicaid in Ohio and for voting as a congressman to cut military spending that forced the closure of a New Hampshire military base.

In response, a super PAC backing Kasich produced an ad that literally slings mud onto a likeness of Bush and calls the former Florida governor unpresidential. The Kasich campaign also released a Web video Friday mocking Bush’s record as Florida governor, claiming he raised fees on doctors’ visits for poor children, increased college tuition and hiked the cost of owning a pet snake.

Amid the sniping, though, Kasich has mostly been striving to keep it clean and nonpartisan in a state that demands intimate retail campaigning — and where voters like to hear lines such as the ones he delivered this week.

PEOPLE WAIT OUTSIDE THE CAMPAIGN BUS OF OHIO GOV. JOHN KASICH DURING A STOP AT BEKTASH SHRINERS WEDNESDAY IN CONCORD, N.H. POLLS HAVE KASICH IN SECOND PLACE BEHIND DONALD TRUMP IN THE STATE. DARREN MCCOLLESTER/GETTY IMAGES

“I happen to be a Republican, but so what?” he said during an appearance at a logistics company here in Bow. “The Republican Party is my vehicle, not my master.”

Earlier, at a town hall in Concord, N.H., he told a crowd of about 80 people: “We don’t get energy by being negative. I am so tired of my colleagues out here on the stage spending all their time talking about Barack Obama. His term is over!”

That message stands in stark contrast with his GOP establishment-friendly rivals — Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) — all of whom are statistically tied with Kasich in recent surveys here but deliver a more partisan message overall on the trail. Taking note of that contrast, four New Hampshire newspapers bucked the better-known candidates and endorsed Kasich this week.

As he builds support here, Kasich (pronounced “kay-sick,” but voters here often say “kay-sitch”) is airing a television ad that resembles a sales pitch for pickup trucks or beer — a biographical message that tells Americans to “never give up” and stands out on airwaves flooded with attack ads. His team claims that they’ve had more direct contact with voters than anyone else — a statement that almost every campaign makes at some point. But the governor has hosted more than 60 town-hall-style events across the state, which is more than his opponents.

[John Kasich has a novel pitch to voters: He’s a politician]

At the logistics company in Bow, he hung out with mostly working-class, middle-aged employees, making fun of their bosses and fielding questions about veterans and corporate taxes. Dressed in a blue pullover sweater, white button-down shirt and gray slacks, the governor detailed a rundown of his biography, including winning a seat in Congress, two terms as Ohio governor and hosting a Fox News talk show.

“And you know what? I ain’t that good,” he said. “You know what happened? The Lord has put His hand on me for some reason. He’s got His hand on everybody in this room, if you let them. And everybody in this room was made special. . . . This isn’t a political speech — it’s a life talk.”

OHIO GOV. JOHN KASICH SPEAKS DURING A CAMPAIGN STOP AT BEKTASH SHRINERS WEDNESDAY IN CONCORD, N.H. DARREN MCCOLLESTER/GETTY IMAGES

Kasich “reminds me a little bit of Ronald Reagan,” said Bill Meisel, 50, who sat in the front row listening to the governor. “He’s focused on changing Americans’ feelings of America.” For now, Meisel said Kasich is “one of two” candidates he’s considering. The other is Bush, whom he hasn’t seen yet.

Fergus Cullen, a former state GOP chairman who attended more than 20 public events hosted by candidates before making an endorsement, gave his support to Kasich on Thursday.

“I’m sensitive to the fact that he’s from a swing state,” Cullen said. “We’ve got a bunch of candidates who are only talking to base Republican voters and are used to in their careers only talking to base Republican voters. That’s not Kasich’s background.”

Ultimately, Kasich will need to rely on a mix of establishment Republicans such as Cullen and independent voters who can vote in New Hampshire party primaries. Roughly 44 percent of the New Hampshire electorate, independents are increasingly being wooed by Kasich, Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the senator from neighboring Vermont.

A New Hampshire poll released Thursday by Boston radio station WBUR found that Kasich is the Republican presidential candidate that independent voters prefer. And he’s the only candidate besides Sanders that independents view favorably overall. The survey also found that Kasich is statistically tied with Trump among independents, 19 percent to 20 percent.

Former Republican senator John Sununu, who served with Kasich in the House in the 1990s, said that the governor’s pitch should seem familiar to many New Hampshire voters.

“His presence and approach to town hall meetings is probably a bit more like that of John McCain,” he said. “His chief executive experience and the confidence that inspires is probably a little bit more like a Mitt Romney. His optimistic vision is probably a little bit more like Ronald Reagan.”

McCain, Romney and Reagan all won the New Hampshire Republican primary.

How Kasich could capitalize on a win in New Hampshire is less certain, and he is still polling in the low single digits in Iowa, South Carolina and national surveys of Republicans. Unlike Trump, Rubio, Bush and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), who have hefty operations already running in states with later contests, Kasich has little presence anywhere else.

That’s where friends like Trent Lott come into play. The former Senate majority leader has reactivated his political operation in Mississippi to help Kasich prepare for the Magnolia State’s GOP primary on March 8. Kasich’s team hopes to do well in New Hampshire and survive until the winner-take-all primary in Ohio on March 15. At the least, they figure that winning his home state’s 66 Republican delegates could make him a kingmaker at a brokered convention.

Then there’s the Kasich super PAC, New Day America, which has spent roughly $5.53 million to date and has been reaching out to New Hampshire voters since October, according to a spokeswoman. The PAC has six offices across New Hampshire and employs 17 full-time staffers in the state. That’s far fewer than Bush’s team but more than other rivals.

In Concord, Kasich marveled at all the media attention and how his campaign has “risen from obscurity now to second place.”

“If I win, great,” he said. “If I don’t win, I got another crusade somewhere else.”

Read the original story at The Washington Post.

SCOTT CLEMENT AND ANU NARAYANSWAMY IN WASHINGTON CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.

January 21, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

JEB BUSH WAVES AS HE ARRIVES ON STAGE WITH JOHN KASICH DURING A PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE IN MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, ON NOV. 10, 2015. DANIEL ACKER/BLOOMBERGS

Allies of Jeb Bush and John Kasich are engaging in a full-fledged ad war, with super-PACs supporting the two Republicans releasing scathing TV commercials against each other on New Hampshire airwaves this week.

New Day for America, the outside group backing Kasich’s presidential campaign, is going up with a 30-second spot that calls out Bush for “desperately slinging mud” in the nomination contest. Right to Rise USA, which supports Bush, is calling Kasich “wrong on New Hampshire issues.”

Bush’s well-funded allies have spent millions attacking rivals in New Hampshire. Kasich has been targeted in mailers for his decision to expand Medicaid in Ohio and for his record on guns. Right to Rise has also slammed Marco Rubio in TV ads for missing Senate votes, and compared him to a weather vane on immigration.

New Day’s anti-Bush ad, first obtained by Bloomberg Politics, will start airing on Friday in New Hampshire, said a person familiar with the group’s plans who asked not to be named. It comes as Kasich, Bush, and other establishment-style candidates fight for second place behind front-runner Donald Trump in the Feb. 9 primary—and a ticket out of the Granite State.

The tone of the ad targeting Bush contrasts with the message coming from Kasich’s campaign itself: that it’s avoided the circular firing squad of Bush, Chris Christie, and Rubio while the Ohio governor wages a more optimistic campaign. Until now, the group’s negative spots have focused primarily on Trump.

The anti-Bush ad will replace one contrasting Kasich’s record as governor with the fiscal problems in New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s state, the person said. It begins with gray footage of a dirt-drenched man, slouching in a field and wearing a “Jeb!” campaign button. “Jeb Bush once stood tall,” booms the narrator. “Before his campaign sank like a rock and he started desperately slinging mud on fellow Republicans. That’s not presidential, Jeb.”

As the music brightens and color returns, the commercial shifts to Kasich’s record, touting his cuts to Ohio taxes and state spending, along with his other economic accomplishments in the swing state. “That’s conservative,” the spot concludes, “and that’s presidential.”

Right to Rise showed Thursday it was simultaneously planning its own line of attack, putting out an ad targeting Kasich. “Where do you line up with John Kasich on the issues?” begins the spot, titled “Quiz.” The ad calls out the Ohio governor for expanding Medicaid, closing an Air Force base, and voting for “massive defense cuts.” It also questions Kasich’s fiscal responsibility as governor, one of the backbones of his presidential bid.

The Right to Rise ad went up on television in New Hampshire markets Thursday, Paul Lindsay, a spokesman for the super-PAC, said. “John Kasich, wrong on New Hampshire issues,” the ad concludes.

MICHAEL BENDER CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ARTICLE.

Read the original story at Bloomberg Politics.

January 20, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, OHIO GOV. JOHN KASICH SHAKES HANDS DURING A CAMPAIGN STOP AT MORSE SPORTING GOODS STORE, TUESDAY, JAN. 19, 2016, IN HILLSBORO, NH AP PHOTO/JIM COLE

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, OHIO GOV. JOHN KASICH SPEAKS WITH SPORTSMEN DURING A CAMPAIGN STOP AT MORSE SPORTING GOODS STORE, TUESDAY, JAN. 19, 2016, IN HILLSBORO, NH AP PHOTO/JIM COLE

While the news media have kept a laser-beam focus on Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, Ohio Gov. John Kasich has been quietly climbing in New Hampshire.

Three polls released in the last few weeks show Kasich in second place among the Granite State’s likely Republican voters. The most recent poll from American Research Group shows Kasich within spitting distance of the billionaire businessman; 20 percent to Trump’s 27, with a 4-point margin of error.

In between campaign stops in Henniker and Concord on Tuesday, Kasich did the opposite of what Trump would do; he brushed off the latest poll.

“I think they’re all about trends,” he said. “We don’t pay much attention to all these polls.”

Still, Kasich and campaign advisers point to the recent numbers as a sign that a steady stream of campaign stops combined with a solid ground game by Kasich’s campaign and the super PAC supporting him, New Day for America, are paying off.

“That’s an indication we’re doing the right thing,” said former senator John E. Sununu, a top adviser to Kasich’s campaign.

With the influence of Trump and the size of the Republican field, “it’s a little tougher to break through, but obviously we’ve been able to do it,” Sununu added.

In addition to the polls, Kasich has been enjoying more good news in the state with Republican endorsements from three New Hampshire newspapers: the Telegraph of Nashua, Foster’s Daily Democrat and the Portsmouth Herald.

Bundled up in a puffy teal winter jacket Tuesday, Kasich was in a jovial mood as he toured the Henniker Brewery and sampled a small glass of beer before retreating back to the warmth of his bus.

In a taproom crowded with reporters and local voters, the first request Kasich fielded came from Henniker resident Christine Burritt, who asked for his take on corruption in Washington.

“Minimal,” Kasich responded, prompting a surprised look from Burritt.

“So why can’t the Democrats and Republicans work together? What can you do to fix that?” she shot back.

Kasich’s response was to call for bipartisanship, a rare plug in a 2016 Republican campaign where divisive rhetoric in stump speeches is commonplace.

“Fix these problems. Stop fighting,” he said. “What’s been happening is we have the parties very divided, they’re even divided among themselves. So when somebody says something that is intense, then these loud voices praise them.”

Kasich then referenced “the silent majority,” a phrase that’s become popular among the Trump contingent to describe voters fed up with Washington and the political establishment. But he had a different take on the term.

“That’s not where the silent majority is; the silent majority wants people to work together,” he said as a few audience members nodded.

As his bus drove from Henniker to another campaign stop in Concord, Kasich again reiterated that while he sees people concerned about national security and getting a good job, he struggles to see the angry voters everyone’s talking about.

He also rejected the notion that an outsider candidate is the best one to get things done, and said he believes voters are looking for someone with experience.

“People won’t believe you unless you can prove to them you’ve done some of these things,” he said. “I have a real sense and experience and knowledge of what we can do.”

Kasich’s campaign has been hyper-focused on New Hampshire since the start of the political season, and both the campaign and New Day for America PAC have been laying the foundation for a strong ground game since the summer.

The two groups have a comparable number of staff members and offices across the state.

New Day New Hampshire State Director Grant Schaffer said his PAC has focused its attention on knocking on doors, making phone calls and building up a large voter database.

New Day staffers have been gathering data and honing their scripts, trying to make some inroads with people who may identify with candidates like Trump.

“We’ve been able to focus on all these different groups,” Schaffer said. “I will tell you that the successes we have with Trump supporters is because of the conversations we have with them.”

Between New Day and Kasich’s campaign, Schaffer estimates they have the largest ground game presence in the Republican field.

“This has been a very general election-style campaign we’re running,” he said.

Still, no matter how many voters they put in the database, Kasich’s campaign and New Day staff said it comes down to how much the governor resonates with New Hampshire voters.

“I know him, I’ve seen the kind of leader he is,” Sununu said, adding the recent surge “shows we’ve got a candidate that’s got the right message and an organization that’s connecting with voters.”

In the chilly Henniker Brewing Company, it appeared the strategy had worked for Burritt, who said Kasich’s answers made an impression. She and her husband, Steve, the town’s fire chief, said they are looking for a moderate, bipartisan candidate.

“Politics has gotten mean,” Christine Burritt said.

In addition to Kasich, the Burritts are looking at Jeb Bush, but Christine Burritt said she also wouldn’t rule out voting for a Democrat in the general election.

“We don’t vote for a party, we vote for a person,” she said.

Read the original story at The Concord Monitor.

January 14, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

A conservative U.S. Senate candidate in Colorado will launch a provocative new ad that compares illegal immigration to an overflowing toilet and Washington dysfunction to a proctology exam while promising if he can’t deliver substantial results by the end of his first term, he’ll throw himself out of office.

The ad’s provocative and interesting nature could put the just-announced campaign of GOP businessman Robert Blaha—the founder of Colorado Springs-based Human Capital Management—in the national spotlight in much the same way similar ads from now Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) did in Iowa’s 2014 U.S. Senate GOP primary.

“If your plumber doesn’t stop the flow, you get a new plumber,” a narrator says over images of an exploding toilet in the new ad, which Blaha’s campaign provided exclusively to Breitbart News ahead of its public release.

Watch the ad titled “Product Guarantee”:

The 60-second ad, Blaha campaign staff confirm to Breitbart News exclusively, will air during the Denver Broncos AFC divisional playoff game all throughout Colorado on Sunday evening, followed by another two weeks of cable airplay throughout the state. At 4:40 p.m. on Sunday, Peyton Manning and the Broncos will host Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

“If your doctor brings you pain, you get a new doctor,” the narrator continues, as images of a doctor conducting a painful-looking proctology exam on a patient appear on screen.

“So why on earth do we keep sending bozos like Michael Bennet back to Washington when they fail to get anything done?” Blaha says, appearing on screen with the Rocky Mountains behind him before images of incumbent Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) as a bobble head doll appear on screen.

More bobble head politicians — including Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and even a sunglass-and-eyepatch-wearing Harry Reid — appear next as Blaha tells viewers: “Bennet and Obama have failed to turn this economy around and Sen. Bennet wants us to send him back to D.C.?”

“I have a better idea,” Blaha, appearing on screen again, says. “Send me to Washington and if I can’t make a difference, I’ll voluntarily come back after just one term. Cut the deficit, slash illegal immigration in half, fix our horrific tax system—or I’ll come home and help find somebody that can. That’s my product guarantee.”

Blaha confirmed to Breitbart News that his goal is to end all illegal immigration, but the ad promise of a cut by at least half should be a reasonable and measurable minimum goal by the end of his first term in Washington.

“We must end illegal immigration, period,” Blaha told Breitbart News. “We have to demand accountability from Congress, and make them provide metrics that show they’re serious about this problem. That’s why I’ve made a commitment: if we can’t cut illegal immigration by 50% in my first term, I won’t run for re-election. I don’t care about getting re-elected, I care about saving the country. That’s my guarantee.”

A longer version of the ad to be distributed as a web video, also provided exclusively to Breitbart News, walks viewers through Blaha’s story—quoting several members of his family.

Watch the longer version of the video:

Blaha jumped into the Senate race on Thursday, joining a seemingly crowded field. Blaha, the Denver Post wrote, is “one of five prominent candidates vying for the Republican nomination and the chance to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.”

“He is the first putting big money into the race, buying $47,000 in TV ads that will air on Fox News in the next two weeks in Denver, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction,” The Post wrote. “Another $9,000, as the Post first reported earlier this month, bought a minute-long ad that will air after the Denver Broncos playoff game Sunday.”

Blaha has a crack political team at his disposal too, with consultant Jordan Gehrke — who’s worked on major political campaigns including the winning U.S. Senate bid in 2014 by now Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) — and campaign manager Katey Price. The infamous ad-maker Fred Davis — who’s been behind many memorable and creative television ads in recent years — is working with Blaha’s team as well.

Bennet, the incumbent Senator and a Democrat, is extraordinarily vulnerable in a general election. He was one of the members of the “Gang of Eight,” who along with Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), John McCain (R-AZ), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and the recently-indicted Bob Menendez (D-NJ), pushed an amnesty bill that wouldn’t secure the border through the U.S. Senate. That bill has haunted every single one of its members since they joined the organization, with the exception of Schumer, who has risen from the ashes of the group to become the likely next Democratic Leader in the U.S. Senate when Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) retires at the end of this year.

What’s more, just last year with now Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), Republicans proved they can win statewide in Colorado—and with a strong conservative who’s willing to aggressively criticize Bennet where he’s weakest, immigration, Republicans might just pull this one off too.

Read the original story at Breitbart.

January 12, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

Watch this episode of “With All Due Respect” on Bloomberg Politics. See Fred and Bob at 23:17.

January 7, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

SENATOR TED CRUZ AT A CAMPAIGN EVENT AT DORDT COLLEGE IN SIOUX CENTER, IOWA, ON TUESDAY. ERIC THAYER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

On WMUR, the dominant television station in Manchester, N.H., about 25 percent of commercial time is being eaten up by presidential campaign ads. Already this week, the candidates and their allies have fired off a dozen new commercials, a third of them negative, in Iowa and New Hampshire markets.

The “super PAC” supporting Senator Marco Rubio of Florida unleashed multiple advertisementsblasting Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and his record. The super PAC backing Senator Ted Cruz of Texas portrayed Mr. Rubio as unfit for the presidency. And the outside group supporting Jeb Bush ripped into Mr. Rubio’s Senate attendance record in one ad and favorably contrasted Mr. Bush’s accomplishments with those of Mr. Christie and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio in another.

The ad wars of the 2016 election are at hand.

“We’re getting down to the firing-squad part of the campaign,” said Larry McCarthy, the strategist making ads for Right to Rise, the super PAC supporting Mr. Bush. “It’s like the end of the Quentin Tarantino movie, where everyone is shooting everyone else.”

It is also a huge bet that television advertisements will remain a crucial, even decisive, political battlefield when signs increasingly suggest otherwise. Candidates and their allies spent nearly $100 million on political advertising last year, including $72 million in Iowa and New Hampshire alone, Kantar Media/CMAG estimated. Much of that was spent by candidates promoting themselves, not attacking their rivals. Yet the biggest spenders reaped only scant improvement in the polls.

Now, with three and a half weeks until the Iowa caucuses, presidential campaigns that spent much of 2015 wooing donors and amassing large amounts of money are spending that money hand over fist, feverishly vying to buy time during every popular show from morning to late-night TV. From Sunday to Thursday alone, according to Kantar, candidates and their allies in both parties spent an estimated $5.9 million on television ads — roughly a third of what was spent in the 2012 Republican race from the beginning of 2011 through the Iowa caucuses. And much more of it now is going toward attempts to take down their rivals.

Turning nasty has grave risks, though, perhaps even more so this cycle, given the more than a dozen candidates in both parties fighting for airtime and attention.

“If you attack somebody else, their support leaves, but it doesn’t necessarily move to you,” said Tad Devine, the longtime Democratic strategist overseeing ad creation for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. “It can be a very dangerous maneuver.”

Few campaigns dared to risk that blowback effect in 2015, though there was another reason to shy from mudslinging: The likeliest target of negative ads, the front-runner, was Donald J. Trump, who showed himself more than willing to go after those who provoked him, often in humiliating terms.

SENATOR MARCO RUBIO AT A CAMPAIGN EVENT IN MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA, ON WEDNESDAY. MAX WHITTAKER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Even now, few Republicans have directly attacked Mr. Trump in television ads. Mr. Bush and Mr. Kasich, the most prominent exceptions, have little to lose, given their standing in the polls.

Yet it is Mr. Trump, with his ability to generate perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars of free television time in the form of news coverage, to whom many political ad makers attribute the growing doubts about the power of political advertising.

For one thing, the shock value of the average blunt, starkly graphic television commercial is diminished when the news show it interrupts covers an even more shocking pronouncement.

“Television ads run on TV, and Donald Trump is a TV phenomenon,” said Fred Davis, the Republican strategist making ads for New Day for America, the super PAC supporting Mr. Kasich. “He would say things that were so much more outrageous than what anyone would ever put in a paid ad.”

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE OF NEW JERSEY GREETING A SUPPORTER ON DEC. 30 BEFORE SPEAKING AT LEGENDS AMERICAN GRILL IN MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA. BRIAN POWERS/THE DES MOINES REGISTER, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Mr. Trump’s presence has also generated previously unheard-of ratings for the Republican presidential debates, turning political coverage into must-see television and giving people who might have been loosely familiar with the campaign a real-time feel for it. As a result, commercials that once offered a prime tool for candidates to inform and persuade are proving less useful at either.

“Ads might be playing a lot less dominant role than they had in the past, partly because more people are getting their info from debates,” said Mr. McCarthy, of Right to Rise.

It has not helped that the crowded field of candidates has been saying many of the same things.

In New Hampshire, Right to Rise, New Day for America and America Leads, the super PAC supporting Mr. Christie, combined to spend an estimated $26.4 million in 2015, more than two-thirds of the total spent on television by all Republican candidates and their allies in the state, according to Kantar. Each produced at least one ad focused on terrorism, with fearsome shots of Islamic State terrorists.

“You have to do stuff that others aren’t doing at the same time,” said Mr. Davis, of New Day for America. “The ones that are the most effective are when everyone is doing ISIS and you switch to Trump’s a hippopotamus,” he added, referring to his group’s advertisement likening Mr. Trump to the large mammal.

Read the original story at The New York Times.

January 7, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

Gov. Pat McCrory (R) “announced Thursday the campaign team that will guide his reelection effort this year as he seeks a second term, and the list includes some big names. Chief among them are Republican strategist Chris LaCivita, who has recently been involved with the presidential bid of” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), “and top GOP ad-maker Fred Davis,” who works for a New Day for America, a super PAC supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R).

“Russell Peck will serve as campaign manager, returning to the same role he held on McCrory’s 2012 campaign. Deputy campaign managers are Billy Constangy, who will focus on finance, and Ricky Diaz, who will head communica-tions. Ryan Terrill is political director, and Targeted Victory will handle digital strategy.” (Hotline reporting)

Unusual thoughts that win