Click here to watch "Fighting For New Mexico."

The Republican contest to hold onto the seat of retiring New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici still has three weeks to go before the primary vote, but already Reps. Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce have struck a contentious note, with a rash of negative TV ads earlier this month. That tone looks unlikely to change after Wilson began airing an ad this weekend criticizing Pearce for votes to shutter a local Air Force base and cut funding to government labs such as the one at Los Alamos.

"Pearce voted four times to slash lab funding that would have cost New Mexico thousands of jobs and put America's security at risk," the ad (subscription) warns. "Heather Wilson fought for New Mexico every time." Most of the attacks traded by the two campaigns in their paid media have revolved around their respective voting records in Congress.

The ad is Wilson's second of the race. Like her first, it concludes by labeling her a "common-sense conservative" -- setting her up as a more pragmatic, centrist alternative to Pearce, whose advertising has emphasized his ideological purity, calling him the "one conservative running for Senate."

Click here to watch "A Better Way."

For weeks now, Oregon voters have been the target of campaign events and political advertisements from both Democratic candidates. In an effort to remind Oregonians that there's another candidate in the race, John McCain will today reach out to the Beaver State with his first TV spot there.

"A Better Way" (subscription) spotlights McCain's determination to alleviate global warming without expansive government programs. Framing climate change as "a national security issue," McCain urges a third way between those who think "high taxes and crippling regulation is the solution" and another side that "denies the problem even exists." Throughout, the ad features images of rising gas prices and natural disasters to underline the urgency of the issue and our "obligation to future generations to take action and fix it," as McCain says.

The McCain camp has so far made a concerted effort to amplify the message of his issue-oriented campaign tours with ads on health care and the economy. "A Better Way" comes as McCain embarks on a campaign swing intended to promote his commitment to the environment and, in the process, further separate himself from the policies of the Bush administration. The spot is an implicit reaction to ads from Democrats and third-party groups that have tried to chip away at McCain's image and portray him as little better than President Bush on the environment.

McCain's advisers have indicated that they hope to put Oregon into play in the general election. By investing in airtime now, he not only competes with ads currently airing from Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, he also attempts to build post-partisan credibility while explicitly assuaging the concerns of conservatives opposed to the "high taxes and crippling regulation" his ad warns against.

Click here to watch "Turn."

After being beaten to the airwaves by Barack Obama in Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana, Hillary Rodham Clinton has once again followed closely behind her opponent with a new ad buy in Oregon -- her first advertising in the state.

The move has symbolic importance given the ongoing calls for Clinton to concede the nomination to Obama; by investing in Oregon before Indiana or North Carolina have voted, she signals her commitment to fight on in the Beaver State's May 20 primary regardless of the outcome in those two states tomorrow.

"Turn" represents something of a scrapbook of past Clinton advertising, mixing together footage and policy proposals from several previous ads. It's clearly tailored for Oregon Democrats, however, opening with Clinton addressing the state's voters directly and going on to tout her pledges to withdraw troops from Iraq within 60 days and create more green jobs. "It's going to take a fighter to meet these challenges," Clinton concludes, reminding voters once again of the talking point that has become her candidacy's raison d'etre.

Click here to watch "Unlikely Alliance -- Part 2."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Speaker Newt Gingrich star in the latest "Unlikely Alliance" spot from Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection. A $300 million organizing and advertising effort, the ACP's "We" campaign seeks to translate popular support for action on global warming into bipartisan political will in Washington.

In the group's previous spot, the Rev. Al Sharpton and televangelist Pat Robertson sat side-by-side on a couch on the beach and playfully discussed their grievances with one another, concluding that climate change was something even they could agree upon. The couch reappears in this new ad, with Pelosi and Gingrich seated in front of the Capitol. The two admit that they don't "always see eye-to-eye" but do "agree our country must take action to address climate change." "We need cleaner forms of energy and we need them fast," Pelosi urges, while Gingrich adds, "If enough of us demand action from our leaders, we can spark the innovation we need."

Continue reading "Pelosi And Gingrich Go Green For Gore" »

Click here to watch "Every."

If undecided voters in the Keystone State aren't swayed by the deluge of ads coming from the Clinton and Obama camps, several third-party groups have stepped in to make the case for their preferred Democrat.

With Barack Obama spending nearly three times more than his opponent on advertising in Pennsylvania, a pro-Hillary Rodham Clinton 527 group, The American Leadership Project, hoped to help level the playing field by launching an ad last week attacking Obama's health care policy. "Hillary Clinton's health care plan would help every American get affordable, quality health care; Barack Obama's plan would leave as many as 15 million Americans uncovered," an announcer claims. "So you would either be one of the millions without coverage, or you'll keep paying more to provide emergency health care for the millions of uninsured."

The group is funded largely by two unions that have endorsed Clinton, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Machinists Union, but has also received contributions from individual donors who have already given the maximum $2,300 directly to the Clinton campaign. The New York Times reports that ALP has had trouble fundraising, however, and will only spend about $425,000 in Pennsylvania, though the group says it intends to play a bigger role in the upcoming Indiana contest.

Continue reading "Pennsylvania Potpourri" »

Click here to watch "Unlikely Alliance"

President Bush's new climate change proposal was greeted with skepticism and scorn on Wednesday, as some pundits believe the proposal is too little, too late from a leader who has largely declined to address global warming.

One organization that is looking for more dramatic action from the federal government on the issue is former Vice President Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection. The nonprofit group, funded largely by Gore himself, has launched the second TV ad of its "We Campaign," a $300 million advertising and grassroots effort whose "ultimate aim is to halt global warming," according to the campaign's Web site.

"Unlikely Alliance" (subscription) features a duo that most Americans would never expect to see on the same side of a political battle -- liberal activist Rev. Al Sharpton and conservative televangelist Pat Robertson. The two talk playfully about their disagreements but stress that climate change is an issue that people of all political stripes can agree on.

Continue reading "Sharpton & Robertson Join Gore's Climate Crusade" »

Click here to watch "Trillions More" and "Out Of Touch."

The prolonged Democratic race has given John McCain relative freedom to lay the groundwork for his general election campaign while his opponents are busy bloodying one another. For his media team, that has meant pre-emptively defining his candidacy through a series of ads depicting McCain as a politically independent war hero.

But while the Democratic candidates are too distracted to knock back a rising McCain, several liberal advocacy organizations have begun stepping into the void.

Continue reading "No Free Ride For McCain" »

Click here to watch "Two Bad For New Mexico."

Regardless of which Republican candidate wins the party nomination in the New Mexico Senate primary race, the environment will be in danger, asserts a new ad from advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.

"Two Bad For New Mexico" (subscription) uses a common metaphor to present New Mexico Reps. Steve Pearce and Heather Wilson as two sides of the same coin on environmental issues. "Heads: Wilson took $525,000 from Big Oil and gave them billions in tax breaks," the ad claims. "Tails: Pearce took $492,000 from Big Oil and voted against fuel efficiency."

This isn't the first time the group has bought airtime (subscription) to push a green agenda, and Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen told AP last week that the organization plans to invest heavily in the New Mexico race. The group's endorsement has already been locked up by Democratic candidate Tom Udall, another New Mexico congressman, who is running unchallenged for his party's nomination.

Click here to watch "Tammie" and "Jewel."

Hillary Rodham Clinton and her surrogates are playing political hardball in Pennsylvania right now, but in North Carolina -- where Barack Obama maintains a double-digit lead in polling -- she appears to be treading more lightly. In two new ads out in the Tar Heel State, Clinton makes no mention of last week's sniping over oil company money or this weekend's spat over Obama's remarks in San Francisco, focusing instead on Clinton's biography and her plans to address record high gas prices.

"Tammie," which hit the airwaves across the state today, is the first follow-up to Clinton's debut spot in North Carolina asking voters to submit questions for her to answer.

Continue reading "Continuing The Conversation" »

Click here to watch "Hoosier."

Former Rep. Jill Long Thompson (D) becomes the last Indiana gubernatorial candidate to join the ad war this week, launching her first TV spot (subscription) statewide on Tuesday. In what is shaping up to be a competitive primary, Thompson is facing off against wealthy architect Jim Schellinger (subscription) for the chance to challenge incumbent Mitch Daniels (R) in the fall. Daniels, for his part, is already running TV ads even though he faces no primary challenger.

The spot, "Hoosier," combines biographical elements from Thompson's life with a pitch for her plans to "reinvest in Indiana." The announcer emphasizes Thompson's humble upbringing: "Raised on the family farm, first to go to college, Jill earned her PhD in business." She "then helped save their farm from bankruptcy while her mother's job was shipped to Mexico," the ad recounts, suggesting the candidate understands the consequences of outsourcing. The ad then touts her experience in Congress, and Thompson appears on screen, pledging not to "sell state assets to foreign companies."

Continue reading "Thompson On Air In Indiana Governor Race" »

Click here to watch "Record On Crime" and "Public Service."

As Louisiana Republicans battle to hold the 1st District seat vacated in January by incoming Gov. Bobby Jindal, the special election primary runoff there has taken a nasty tone on the airwaves going into Saturday's vote.

State Sen. Steve Scalise narrowly missed winning the majority of Republican votes needed to secure the nomination in last month's primary, leading state Rep. Tim Burns 48 percent to 28 percent. But that 20-point margin of victory is in the past, and in recent days both candidates have hurled negative advertisements at each other on issues ranging from crime to the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Continue reading "Attack Ads Prompt Court Intervention In Louisiana" »

Click here to watch "Anthem."

Pundits are busy speculating about Al Gore's role in the increasingly cloudy Democratic primary race, but the former presidential candidate seems to have other things on his mind: namely, the environment.

Gore is launching a campaign, but not the one for president; rather, his green advocacy group, Alliance for Climate Protection, announced Monday that it will pour over $300 million into a grassroots effort aimed at mobilizing the public to force Washington to take action on climate change.

Grand in its ambitions, the "We Campaign" seeks to enlist 10 million volunteers to translate public will into political action. The Washington Post called the effort "one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history." The first ad (subscription) released by the group, "Anthem," takes the historical long view on the issue of global warming.

Continue reading "Gore Campaigns For The Globe, Not The White House" »