The top candidates for Arizona’s contested Senate seat increasingly are taking their messages to the airwaves. Just a day after Republican incumbent Jon Kyl rolled out a new television commercial, Democratic challenger Jim Pederson followed with two new commercials.
Kyl’s spot features his work on victims rights, specifically a law he sponsored that allows crime victims to make statements during trials.
Pederson’s commercials focus on health care, the young and seniors.
In one commercial, Pederson proposes creating “buying pools” that would allow individuals and smallbusiness owners to purchase insurance and prescription drugs at lower rates.
In the other, Pederson appears with children and seniors while discussing measures to provide preschool classes and improve schools, and to protect Social Security and pension funds.
Pederson’s new ads will cycle into rotation, replacing a commercial about high gas prices and energy policy, said campaign spokesman Mark Bergman.
“We’re painting a larger picture of what Jim’s vision is and that he’ll be on the side of Arizona families,” he said.
The energy ad has been in heavy rotation statewide for two weeks and will return later in the campaign.
Political strategist Jason Rose said Pederson might have jettisoned the gas prices ad because it was “flat” and wasn’t registering with voters.
Meanwhile, the timing of Kyl’s ad is “exquisite” because it capitalizes on public
awareness of the Baseline Killer and the Serial Shooter, said Rose, president of Rose & Allyn Public Relations in Scottsdale. “If I’m Jim Pederson and I’m out there talking about oil and gas and tax breaks for special interests — and Jon Kyl goes up with the issue du jour — I improvise,” Rose said.
