Nolan Ryan in Kay's new TV commercial...

Kay has a new TV commercial that is very nice looking and creative... although again I am not sure how much traction this issue is having...

Nolan Ryan's support of Kay reminds me a little bit of his support for Democrat John Sharp over Republican David Dewhurst in 2002 (link). Excerpt follows...

Air Wars

Republican David Dewhurst ran his first television ads of this election cycle before John Sharp was even an official candidate for lieutenant governor (and before the Republican incumbent, Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, had exited the race). He's had commercials on and off the air for more than a year. And he's had a negative commercial on the air for several weeks.

Sharp hasn't answered any of it, and Dewhurst's campaign says the polling shows their guy with a lead because of it. The Democrats' folks say it ain't so, but they're finally joining the air war.

Sharp's first commercial features former baseball great Nolan Ryan, a Republican who now runs a bank and a ranch and owns part of a minor league ball club in Round Rock. It's basically an endorsement ad, with Ryan saying he supports Sharp because of the Democrat's efforts to cut welfare fraud, to cut state spending, and to "save us from an income tax." In the ad, Ryan says Sharp's performance reviews as state comptroller saved the state "hundreds of millions of dollars." For Sharp, who has claimed for years that the savings amounted to $8.5 billion, that's a downgrade, but it's one that might not be noticeable to voters.

Sharp sent out an email teaser for his commercial to lobsters and scribes, hyping the arrival of the TV spot a day before it went on the air. The teaser starts with a mock version of the familiar green movie-rating screen and then goes through a promo for the coming ad campaign. It uses a well-known sound effect at the beginning, which turns out to be copyrighted. It's the THX "Audience is Listening" sound effect, and at first blush, that company called the promo an infringement of its rights. The spot was only on for a day, and the THX people in California say the Sharp gang pulled it off the website "very cordially" when the movie folks called to complain. The Sharp folks say they pulled the promo because the commercial started running and it was no longer needed.

By the time you read this, Sharp will have started new ads—still positive, the campaign says—that tout Sharp's ideas and record and continue to use Ryan as a pitchman. Dewhurst, meanwhile, started a new commercial attacking the Democrat's plan to use lottery money to send Texas kids to college. It continues a theme used earlier in the Republican's radio spots, calling Sharp's plan a "bad idea" that would take money away from public education and saying it would lead to higher property taxes. Sharp said when he introduced the plan that he wouldn't propose the tuition assistance until the state economy and budget have righted themselves.

Both campaigns are also taking their fight to radio, both running ads that more or less track what they're doing on television: Sharp is running biographical and endorsement ads, while Dewhurst is warning voters away from the Democrat.

Nolan Ryan... maybe not the best pitch man... a better major league pitcher than endorser... somehow I don't know that Kay benefits all that much from the anti toll road pitch...