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Daily Ad Track

By Abby Livingston
Posted October 24, 2012 at 2:46pm

Here’s what cut through the clutter today.

Wisconsin Senate 

It took Rep. Tammy Baldwin (R) less than 24 hours to fire back against an ad from former Gov. Tommy Thompson’s (R) campaign accusations that she has not honored 9/11 victims.

Pennsylvania Senate 

Majority PAC, a super PAC supporting Democratic Senate candidates, has gone on the air in Pennsylvania. The content of this ad is not that extraordinary, but the fact that the group is spending here is indicative of Democratic nervousness about holding on to this seat. There are other races where Democrats would like to be on offense, rather than defense.

New Jersey’s 3rd

An ad that escaped our notice Tuesday raised our eyebrows in the same way. The Boehner-linked Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC has invested about $700,000 in television and digital advertising to keep Rep. Jon Runyan (R) in office. Most handicappers had essentially written off this race — putting it in likely Republican territory — once the national House committees pulled advertising funding. That a GOP group would want to invest in the expensive Philadelphia market when Democratic candidate Shelley Adler seemed like a highly unlikely future Member is fascinating.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmV0EiNbihk

Wisconsin’s 1st 

It was the last line in a new ad from Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R) Congressional campaign that sounded familiar and caught our ear: “America should be a place where if you work hard and play by the rules, you can get ahead.”  In fact, it sounded downright Clintonian. Democrat Rob Zerban is challenging him in this race. Ryan is simultaneously on the ballot as the GOP vice presidential nominee.

Connecticut Senate

Rep. Christopher Murphy (D) is up with the sort of ad we expect to become more prevalent in the next week — the positive closing spot. Murphy and his Republican rival, former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, have spent millions bashing each other for weeks in ads and in debates. Expect more of these positive spots to surface in other nasty campaigns.

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