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Fisher goes negative in ads
On the side
Uphill battle: Political analysts say freshman U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper of Erie, Pa., D-3rd, is facing an uphill battle to get re-elected in November.
She is facing Republican Mike Kelly, a car dealer, in the November general election.
Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of the Rothenberg Political Report, moved the race from “pure toss up” to “toss up/lean Republican.” Rothenberg made the change based on national and local polls that “show further deterioration in the Democratic prospects” in retaining the majority in the U.S. House.
Also, Tim Sahd of the National Journal in his House race rankings wrote that Dahlkemper “is in serious trouble in this marginally Republican district.”
Sahd added that “Kelly is largely unknown,” but gives the Republican the advantage based on generic Democratic vs. Republican polls that show voters favor GOP candidates.
The struggling U.S. Senate campaign of Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher went on the offensive with a television commercial attacking Rob Portman, his Republican opponent.
The campaign then immediately took a defensive position regarding the ad.
The only mention of Fisher, a Democrat, in the commercial comes at the end.
“I’m Lee Fisher, and I approve this message.”
The rest of the 30-second commercial goes after Portman for being responsible for: “Outsourcing. Bad trade deals. Soaring deficits.”
The main focus is on Portman’s economic policies that the Fisher commercial contends grew jobs in China at the expense of Ohio.
The commercial includes a map of China at the beginning and a Chinese flag toward the end as well as Portman shaking hands with someone in front of a Chinese flag.
Oh, and a photo of former President George W. Bush, Portman’s former boss, is thrown in there as well.
A recent poll by The Columbus Dispatch has Fisher trailing Portman by 13 percentage points.
While the Fisher campaign says the race is tight, there’s no denying Portman is killing him when it comes to raising money.
It’s so bad that Fisher had to wait until after Labor Day to run his first general election TV commercial. (Portman is airing his fourth commercial.)
You haven’t seen Fisher’s commercial?
You’re likely not alone.
Lynne Bowman, Fisher’s campaign manager, said the commercial is running statewide.
But it’s only airing in certain Ohio markets and in some cases, only on cable television.
As for the accuracy of the message, The Dispatch wrote that it “relies on a selective and misleading use of statistics.”
Why did Fisher go so negative with his first commercial?
Portman and his supporters are incorrectly portraying who he is, Bowman said.
“It’s very important we tell the truth about Congressman Portman,” she said.
Defending the commercial’s tone, Holly Shulman, Fisher’s campaign spokeswoman, said that Portman “ran a very negative spot against us a month ago,” which he did.
Also, she said, the campaign ran ads during the primary “touting Lee’s record that Ohioans have already seen.”
In response, Jeff Sadosky, Portman’s communications director, said the only thing Fisher can do is run “a dishonest campaign based on fear and deception.”
Ohio Republican Chairman Kevin DeWine said Fisher made “his campaign look more desperate and pathetic than it already is.”
Going negative is how Fisher will run the remainder of his campaign.
The commercial was the start of a “series of events over the next two months highlighting Portman’s failed record of sending Ohio jobs overseas,” Shulman said.
We’ll see in less than two months how well the strategy works.