Health Care for America Now just engaged their first major ad buy -- $4 million targeting John Sununu, Congressman Ric Keller (FL-8), Congressman Randy Kuhl (NY-29), Congressman Tim Walberg (MI-7) and candidates Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9), Marty Ozinga (IL-11), and Erik Paulsen (MN-3). It's a shame, then, that the ad is pretty weak.
It's not clear to me what HCAN's strategy is here. They're hitting John McCain's unpopular health insurance plan, not the conservative vision on health care. And given Obama's funding advantage, it's not at all clear that he's in need of that air support. I'd far prefer to see them in the same districts, with the same ad buy, running a spot that, if it works, could be interpreted as more than a rejection of an increasingly unpopular presidential ticket. The utility of using a discrete issue to target congressfolk is that if you take one out, you can use the scalp to scare others. AIPAC did it years ago, and have been dining out on the sorry tale of Paul Findley ever since. But if this ad succeeds, all it proves is that it's a bad year for Republicans to be linked with their presidential candidate. It's going to be hard to assert wider relevance. HCAN is one of the few major coalitions charged with shaping the legislative environment the month after inauguration, but it's hard to see this ad fitting neatly into that strategy. Update: Ah, this makes more sense. Turns out HCAN has a variety of versions of this ad, all of which attack specific votes the targeted congressman has made. So it's not just tying them to McCain, it's actually nailing them on their health care records. That's much better. I'm still not a huge fan of the ad itself, but the strategy certainly seems sound.
