Fight for Tomorrow, a new national Super PAC based in Texas and developed by several conservatives in Virginia and in other states, is launching an advertising campaign intended to impact the Virginia Governor’s race.
Our first ad, “Don’t Let Them Detroit Virginia,” is running on TV in Richmond and northern Virginia in the Washington, DC market and in the “A” section of today’s Washington Post.
Like-minded individuals can help us run this ad in Virginia. While our focus is on this critical contest for the next two months, our interest is wider than simply one state.
A GOP “wave” in 2014 to ensure Republican control of the U.S. Senate and the Congress is there for the taking, but it won’t happen until the Democratic Party leadership and its allies are confronted over the one tactic they have been using to hold onto power, especially in the U.S. Senate. Avoiding any “liberal” vs. “conservative” comparisons is paramount for Democrats, and they have done this by making elections ugly mano a mano contests. Their tactic: isolate the Republican with a furious barrage of attack ads sponsored by mega-rich environmentalists, abortion extremists, or smear groups funded by anti-American financier George Soros.
This is only the latest iteration of a tactic first recommended by Clinton-Obama hero, Saul Alinsky. It has been most shrewdly employed in recent years by two principal Democratic players – New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who has raised much of the Wall Street and Hollywood money, and David Axelrod, who employs the Obama echo chamber by working the phones with the closet Obama partisans masquerading as news executives and editors in the elite media.
On display all year in Kentucky against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for speaking out against the administration’s attempts to silence dissent, the attacks are focused most recently on the GOP candidate in the Virginia governor’s race, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Coordinated by the national Democratic Party, the Obama White House, and the Clintons, as Clinton protégé and professional “Friend of Bill” Terry McAuliffe is Cuccinelli’s opponent. Democrats believe turning Virginia from red to blue would be just the sort of demoralization needed to slow down a GOP “wave.” They hunger for the headline “Conservative Disaster in Virginia.”
It isn’t going to be easy. Cuccinelli pulverized McAuliffe in a candidates’ debate a few months ago, and this led to post-debate gaffes by McAuliffe. Carpetbagger McAuliffe, mistake-prone and the subject of a federal investigation and unflattering news stories about his political and business hustling, is the sort of political embarrassment who under normal circumstances would never have gotten a party nomination or been forced out of the race long ago.
So McAuliffe needs propping up and can only succeed with the kind of confused electorate the Obama-Clinton smears machine causes. Which is why ignoring the Virginia attack ads is not an option. The public senses a lack of will and tends to lose faith in a candidate who won’t fight back. Yet bogging down a Republican candidate in responding to outside attacks is just what the Democrats want.
That’s why we have launched Fight for Virginia, a new effort from our national Super PAC, Fight for Tomorrow, which today is announcing a first wave, six-figure ad buy (print & TV) this week in Virginia.
We are detailing why we believe that McAuliffe is a “stand in” for a “Gang of Five” whom we identify as “the extreme liberal leadership of the Democratic Party, the elite media, smear groups financed by anti-American foreigner Soros and mega rich environmentalists, Wall Street liberals and Hollywood partisans.” We charge that the attack ads are meant to cover McAuliffe’s “hidden agenda” of “high taxes, government regulation, health care rationing, high gas prices, collapsing public pensions, pay offs to union bosses, and Hollywood values in our schools.”
The Obama administration has been ruthless about suppressing dissent and violating the civil rights of their political opponents.
These actions will give voters a context – a frame for the attack ads. Inoculating voters against the “Gang of Five” while Cuccinelli remains positive will not only buffer the attacks but make them boomerang on McAuliffe.
Because as soon as Democratic attacks ads are delegitimized, they will seek to abuse the legal process. Conservative groups are readying ethics and disbarment actions against attorneys who bring harassment suits to stifle free speech, and we hope that RNC Chairman Reince Priebus is readying a legal team for similar counteraction.
In addition, Republicans need to remember they win when they tell the quiet, simple truth about Democrats. The word “liberal” is the worst brand in American politics. Republican candidates must successfully define their terms.
So here’s a lesson from Ronald Reagan. In August of 1988, Michael Dukakis had a nice lead over Vice President George Bush in the polls and his claim the election was about “competence not ideology” had won wide praise. Then, President Reagan told a wildly cheering crowd at an arrival rally at the GOP convention in New Orleans that the “ideology vs. competence line” was “the biggest masquerade since last year’s Mardi Gras.” Dukakis was “telegraphing” his greatest weakness, his fear, said Reagan, of being called “liberal, liberal, liberal.” The speech was on front pages nationwide and the frame of “liberal” Dukakis was picked up by the Bush campaign, and it stuck. The result? A landslide.
So by clearly defining the difference between a conservative and a liberal Republicans can win a close, important Governor’s race in Virginia this year and nationwide in the midterms next year. But first, principled conservatives must expose the attack ads and de-fang the Gang of Five.
Matt Mackowiak is Executive Director of the national Super PAC Fight For Tomorrow, who launched a new project, “Fight for Virginia” today. Learn more at http://www.
So by clearly defining the difference between a conservative and a liberal Republicans can win a close, important Governor’s race in Virginia this year and nationwide in the midterms next year. But first, principled conservatives must expose the attack ads and de-fang the Gang of Five.
Matt Mackowiak is Executive Director of the national Super PAC Fight For Tomorrow, who launched a new project, “Fight for Virginia” today. Learn more at http://www.
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