Friday, October 13, 2006
Is there a problem with this ad?
Paul R. Nelson has launched the ad below. Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is. It's your typical attack ad...except for it talks about sex and sex-related things.
Seems like no one in the mainstream media or in the party establishment likes it.
Nelson's ad so irked state Republican leaders that it merited a call last week from Wisconsin Republican Party Executive Director Rick Wiley to Kind's campaign manager, Matt Sweeney, in which, Kind said, Wiley took pains to "denounce" it.
Wiley acknowledged Monday that he called Sweeney about the advertisement last week but said the discussion was "off the record." He said he called Sweeney only to weigh in on what he thought about it.
So what does he think about it?
"It's not a good ad. There is no doubt about it," Wiley said. "(Nelson) would be better served if he sticks to the issues out there that folks want to hear about."
However, on Thursday, La Crosse County Republican Party Chairman Chris Muller disagreed with Wiley and said Nelson and his ad are "shining a light on Ron Kind's disgusting voting record." Muller issued a statement that criticizes GOP leaders for not supporting Nelson.
"Unfortunately, some leaders in the Republican Party have chosen to turn their backs on Paul. This is the kind of weak-kneed leadership that grass-roots activists have been complaining about," Muller said.
Nelson said he recently got a call from Wiley.
"Mr. Wiley expressed his unhappiness with us," Nelson said. "We told him we thought the ad accurately depicts the shameful, deplorable waste of government dollars that we say it does."
Nelson said he did not conceive the ad. In fact, it originally wasn't even his; the advertisement was put together for a congressional hopeful in North Carolina. Nelson said he paid its producer something less than $5,000 to fashion it to target Kind.
"Most voters don't believe this actually happened. They think, at best, this was buried in some large appropriations bill," Nelson said. "This is not the case. (Kind) voted . . . in the middle of the day on a roll call vote . . . They were voting specifically on these (National Institutes of Health) studies."
Is there any wonder why many Republicans have lost faith in RPW? If a candidate wants to tell the truth about his opponent, he should let him
Labels: Election 2006
