Jeff Schapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a by-lined story on Tim Kaine’s early use of television ads, plus what will probably be regular feature, “Campaign Spot Watch.” “Spot Watch” examines each ad in detail, here and here.
I find the difficult role of Kaine’s wife, Ann Holton, to be interesting. As a district court judge, she is banned from participating in election campaigns, but she got permission to appear in one of the ads as long as she did not speak. I wonder if there will be other strained situations for her down the road.
While his wife could not speak, Kaine’s children do vouch for their Dad. I’m uncomfortable with a candidate bringing his/her family too much into the campaign and I hope to see the ad to gauge whether it trips my comfort meter. Mark Earley did an ad with his kids and Ukrop grocery bags in 2001 that I don’t think did him any good.
Update: Norm at One Man’s Trash, the go-to guy in the Virginia blogosphere on all things advertising and message related, has his take here. I incorrectly attributed both “Spot Watch” write-ups to Schapiro; Norm, showing much more attention to detail, noted that Tyler Whitley evaluated the biographical ad. Schapiro evaluated the tax reduction ad.
