WI-05: Shots Fired

by Kagro X

Candidate Bryan Kennedy, seeking to unseat F(-tard) James Sensenbrenner, has fired what is perhaps the first salvo of the '06 campaign season, hitting the airwaves with a spot taking aim at Sensenbrenner's vote against Katrina relief. First aired this afternoon, in district, on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel, we've got a copy of the ad for you to download, right here: Download kennedy_spot.wmv

What makes this newsworthy, besides being first to market?

Recall DemFromCT's cite to the recently released Democracy Corps report, noting:

The events surrounding Katrina highlighted two themes for voters. One of them – the realization that we have millions of Americans living in poverty, children without basic nutrition or medical care, elderly who face a monthly choice between food, heat, and medicine, and uninsured families one setback away from financial disaster – was present in conversations on Iraq before Katrina, but the suffering of Katrina’s victims and the long road ahead for the hundreds of thousands displaced by the storm really brought it into focus. Now, voters believe we must take care of those at home first, and if that means reducing funding or troop levels in Iraq, so be it. There is still little appetite for an immediate withdrawal, particularly among the men, but strong support across all groups to shift resources from saving the rest of the world to taking care of America’s increasingly urgent needs. [emphasis mine]

Kennedy benefits from early action here, by going directly at the gaping hole Bush's Katrina failure has opened up. This is the sort of thing that keeps the flames properly fanned (though we might regret the inclusion of tsunami relief in this litany), instead of giving way to the unseemly cynicism I displayed the other day.

Comments

[jonnybutter]

If Kennedy has a shot at beating that pig Sensenbrenner, then there really is a g-d. Old Sourpants won with 67% last time (I believe). I can't find any (free) polling information. Anybody seen any?

[Kagro X]

I haven't seen any polling, but surely Kennedy knows what he's up against. The current pet blogosphere theory, of course, is that you run energetic challenges at least in the districts of GOP leaders, to make them stay home and mind the store.

[jonnybutter]

Twinkle Toes won re-election in 2002 86% to 13%, beating someone named Raymond (no idea who that is), and won against Kennedy in '04 66% to 32% (with 2% for the libertarian). That's pretty bad, but at least it's trending the right way. So, not impossible. Kennedy doesn't strike me as a particularly strong candidate, but I have to admit that, though the district in question is only about a hundred miles from where I live, the folkways of Wisconsin (especially rural WI) are and have always been a baffling mystery to me.

Anyway, mediocre or not, good on Kennedy for getting out there early. Audio of Lard Ass's hearing room tantrum is up on the Kennedy site - I'd like to see THAT in a commercial; maybe they're saving it for later.