The big story last week — or story-lette — in the West Virginia Senate race was Politico’s scoop that the NRSC ad people did a casting call for ‘hicky’ actors to for an anti-Joe Manchin ad in support of GOP nominee John Raese. Now Manchin’s on the air with a new ad playing the revelation for all its worth. Take a look.
I’ll be curious to see how well this ad works and particularly whether it can shift momentum in the race. Republicans playing on the supposed elitism of national Democrats is a constant theme in Appalachia. But Manchin is a very popular Democratic governor. What’s got him in a tight race is President Obama and the national mood on the right. An ad like this attempts to put the lie to that whole Republican narrative. As I said, quite apart from the race itself, will be very interesting to see how the ad plays.
