SharePolitical ads already crowding Nebraska airwaves
Margery A. BeckNearly eight months remain until voters head for the polls on Election Day in November, which is plenty of time for Nebraskans to grow weary of the political ads already filling the airwaves.
Even before the state's May 15 primary for the open U.S. Senate seat, GOP front-runner and state Attorney General Jon Bruning and an outside conservative group have launched ads that attack Democratic candidate Bob Kerrey. Bruning's started just two days after Kerry declared his candidacy.
The narrator in the attorney general's ad _ airing on Nebraska broadcast and cable channels to the tune of $70,000 _ compares the two candidates: "Kerrey says `Obamacare' didn't go far enough. Bruning is leading the fight to overturn it."
Nebraskans can expect a lot more of that from both sides as the political season marches on, said Richard Hasen, an expert on money in politics at the University of California at Irvine School of Law.
"They'll see a barrage of ads," Hasen said. "And they'll see a lot of negative ads."
That likely comes as no surprise to any Nebraskans who've recently flipped on their television or radio.
American Crossroads, a group with ties to Republican political operative Karl Rove, spent $80,000 to air a new radio ad that started Monday accusing Kerrey of striking "a secret deal" with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to run for his old Senate seat.
The ad compares Kerrey to Nebraska's senior senator and only congressional Democrat, Ben Nelson, who has been lambasted by the GOP and conservative groups have for providing the 60th and final vote needed to advance Democrats' health care overhaul in 2009. Republicans accused Nelson of trading his vote for a deal to provide Nebraska with federal funding to expand Medicaid, an agreement that opponents dubbed the "Cornhusker Kickback." The proposal was removed before the bill's final passage.
Nelson endured two years of criticism over that vote before announcing in December he would not seek a third Senate term.
Weeks before Kerrey even he'd run for Nelson's seat, conservative groups dropped more than $130,000 on ads accusing Kerrey of a variety of things _ from being a carpetbagging New York liberal to supporting taxpayer-funded abortion and backing a more liberal version of health care reform.
Kerrey has responded, spending close to $105,000 on television ads, according to his campaign. But his first spots stick to mostly positive themes. One features various people welcoming the former two-term senator and one-term Nebraska governor back to the state as a "true Nebraskan." In the other, Kerrey says, "It's good to be back," and promises to take on various issues, such as the soaring national debt and failing schools.
The upcoming primary also means the battle for the Republican nomination is also heating up on television and radio. Senate candidate and State Treasurer Don Stenberg is running ads in an effort to emerge as the Republican nominee.
By October, Nebraskans may see and hear little else than political ads between shows and songs, Hasen said.
Democrats and Republicans are desperate for the seat as both parties seek to control the Senate, he said, so outside groups are expected to spend millions of dollars across the country in an attempt to sway the elections.
"And the Nebraska media market is relatively cheap," he said.
The advent of super PACs and other outside political groups can be a mixed blessing for candidates, who often have no control over the message groups push, said former Nebraska GOP chairman David Kramer.
"In the old days, the candidate had complete control of what the message was and ... got to decide what his or her agenda would be, the timing of that agenda, and they rolled it out in that regard," said Kramer, who ran for Senate in 2006. The messages from outside groups "dilutes the message of the candidate," he said.