This Just In: McCain Finally Going Up On The Air
UPDATE: Everyone’s talking about whether McCain is or isn’t putting cash on Indiana’s airwaves to fend off a strong ground game and months of advertising from Barack Obama. Two sources told Politico that McCain was planning a buy, but now a McCain spokesperson says the campaign isn’t planning to advertise. All the hubbub may actually be over RNC-funded spots. Either way, the Republicans are clearly getting nervous about good ol’ Indiana.
John McCain’s presidential campaign has finally decided to purchase television advertising in Indiana.
Word is, they’re putting the buy together as I write this.
Barack Obama has been advertising for weeks. Perhaps the McCain folks have actually realized that not only is our state in play, but they’re not playing in it right now. One phone line doesn’t quite cut it when you’re running against a guy who’s motivated tens of thousands of new voters to get involved in the political process.
This tidbit has political significance beyond the presidential race because it means there will be less time available for the statewide, Congressional and Statehouse candidates to purchase. It also could wind up being more expensive. This could spell trouble for those pols who’ve reserved but not yet paid for their time.
Powered by
[...] Originally Posted by bassjones Allen County is much larger than just Fort Wayne. Fort Wayne’s sort of moderate/liberal, but the rest of the county is very conservative. Souder has won his congressional seat easily every 2 years. He’s widely favored again. College students could be huge, but I don’t have any faith that they’ll actually get out and vote. They’re pretty self-absorbed for the most part and vote in really low numbers. Daniels popularity could be a huge factor in McCain’s winning handily in Indiana again. Thompson’s just not getting much traction and the only issues people have with Daniels are over two really petty, stupid things – The Toll Road and Daylight Savings Time. That’s not enough to defeat an incumbent who has the state in the black in his first 4 years following the economic disaster plan that was the previous two administrations. BTW, for proof that fiscal conservatism works, look no further than Indiana. If Daniels hadn’t sold the Toll Road system our state finances would be as fucked up as everyone else’s. That’s not petty, that’s selling off a consistent source of revenue balance the budget for a couple of years. About Allen County – from an election perspective Allen County is Fort Wayne. Seventy percent of the people in the county lives in Fort Wayne. Any candidate who gets a large win in the city is going to win the county. Souder? Heh. He’s in trouble and he knows it. He could only get an eight-point win against a self-financed Fort Wayne city councilman two years ago, the narrowest victory by any incumbent in the Indiana congressional delegation. His approval ratings are under 50 percent and he’s going into a year where Obama is going to pull a very high turnout for Dem voters. The kid running against him, Mike Montagano, is probably the toughest challenger Souder has ever faced. Montagano worked for Joe Kernan when he was governor and Tim Roemer when he was in Congress, so he’s coming in with a much better idea of how to run a Congressional race. He’s also from Elkhart, and that’s going to be a very big advantage. There’s a lot of anti-Souder sentiment among Allen Dems. They don’t need a hometown candidate to turn out. But Dem candidates from Fort Wayne have struggled to get attention from the Elkhart county Dem organizations. Montagano has the Elkhart organization and he’ll get strong turnout in Allen. That combination is not going to be an easy win. Souder is going to need to rack up huge numbers in Kosciusko. It won’t take a tidal wave to swamp Souder, Obama keeping Indiana within two or three should be enough to do it. About McCain – he’s reportedly getting nervous enough to move people from Iowa and look into buying local ad time f… [...]
[...] after an item that appeared here first, McCain’s campaign had said they wouldn’t be running ads here because, after [...]