Not to be outdone by Tuesday morning’s news of the launch of Bill Nelson’s first campaign spot, Rick Scott rolled-out his latest ad (see below) — the eighth since entering the race for U.S. Senate on April 9.
The Scott campaign announced it will spend another $2.2 million on the latest television spot called “New Ideas” that will air both on television and on a variety of digital platforms. That brings the total spent by the Scott campaign on ads to over $13 million.
The ad accuses Nelson of failing to achieve any major accomplishments during his four decades in public. It features a variety of Floridians who say it’s time for a change in Washington.
“I do not think Bill Nelson has new ideas,” said one unidentified Floridian.
“He started in politics in 1972. That’s just a little bit less than I am old… and I’m no spring chicken,” state another.
Earlier in the day, Nelson’s campaign released its first spot. It’s a digital ad that focuses on Nelson’s 1986 journey to space aboard the space shuttle Columbia while serving in Congress. Nelson’s campaign would not say how much it is spending to air the spot, but digital ads usually cost less than traditional TV spots. The ad will air on a variety of digital platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.
“In Florida, we don’t just reach for the stars, we travel to them. I know. I flew on the Space Shuttle,” says Nelson in the ad. “And when I looked back at our planet, I didn’t see political divisions, I saw how we’re all in this together.”
While it’s the Nelson campaign’s first spot, it is not the first ad in support of Nelson. Last week, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee last week made a $2.2 million ad buy supporting the incumbent.
But Scott has shown over the past two months that he has the political firepower and the financial resources to wage an effective battle via the airwaves and has unabashedly done so. His eighth spot of the campaign shows the campaign’s aggressive style, jumping out to a quick start in early April and maintaining pressure on Nelson, who the Scott campaign attacks as a career politician, with no accomplishments to his name and who votes along party lines.
In a story published this weekend by USA Today, brushed off the fact that Scott has “out-spent, out-campaigned and out-muscled Nelson in a nationally watched race that could decide who controls the Senate next year.”
And Nelson, 75, downplays polls showing up to a third of Florida voters don’t know enough about him to form an opinion.
“I have not been on the ballot in the last six years and a lot of new people have moved here,” he said, pointing to the transient nature of Florida’s population. “So you ask am I worried. Do I look like I’m worried?”
