In politics, you’re either on message or you’re losing. Let’s get to it.
Welcome to On Message, a weekly look at where the battle lines are drawn and who is winning the war of words.
This week… AIR ASSAULT.
Since our last video, the calendar flipped from April to May and that means the clock is ticking toward Primary Election Day.
As campaigns shift from focusing on a smaller group of delegates to the broader field of primary Republican voters, one of the biggest changes you’ll see are ads hitting TV.
Those same ads will also hit your social media feeds if you’ve been targeted, of course, but the battle of the airwaves is the most auspicious.
In the most high-profile race in Utah, incumbent Senator Mike Lee is the first (and, at the moment, the only) candidate with an ad on television. His 30-second spot began airing this past week.
In it… we get endorsements from former House Speaker Greg Hughes, State Senator Dan McKay and an appearance by Utah County Commissioner Amelia Powers Gardner. The b-roll shows Lee listening, walking and flashing a pocket Constitution. There’s not a lot you can do in thirty seconds and the spot does a good job to re-enforce what many Republicans like about Mike Lee reminding them he’s a fiscal conservative and pro-life.
It’s not flashy but it doesn’t have to be if he’s the only one on the air.
So far Lee’s two Republican challengers have yet to air TV spots. Isom has a three-minute video on her website and Becky Edwards has four thirty-second spots that have been on her YouTube page for eight months.
The Edwards spots are pretty good and could benefit her if they reached a larger audience. The Isom video is also a great introduction that pulls at your heartstrings and I would presume her team will release a version or two of the best thirty-second cuts.
Utah’s primary is June 28th but ballots go out three weeks before that so, for many voters, Election Day could come as early as June 8th. That doesn’t leave much time.
Whether or not either Isom or Edwards has the money to drive their message home for enough voters in the amount of time remaining is the most pressing challenge for both.
That’s it for this week.
More On Message in the next issue of the Utah Political Underground.
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