Aren’t you tired of conservatives not fighting back?
We are too. And we’re doing something about it.
Liberal Northern Virginian and Clinton mouthpiece Terry McAuliffe just had one of the worst ten day periods in recent memory.
On Thursday, Sept. 12 our national Super PAC, Fight For Tomorrow began airing a new TV ad, “Don’t Let Them Detroit Virginia,” in northern Virginia and Richmond. At the time, liberal Terry McAuliffe led by an average of seven points, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls.
Our ad immediately won major coverage on Breitbart.com, RedState.com, Newsmax or Real Clear Politics.
Four days later McAuliffe’s campaign had an epic meltdown as the influential Northern Virginia Technology Council endorsed Ken Cuccinelli, after, what The Washington Post called an “aggressive behind-the-scenes attempt by supporters of his Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe.”
The next day Quinnipiac University released its respected independent poll which showed the race in a “virtual tie,” according to The Washington Post.
On Friday, Wall Street Journal columnist Kim Strassel highlighted the effectiveness of our latest ad in her influential national column. Here’s an excerpt:
Enter a new conservative Super PAC, Fight For Tomorrow, which last week began running a creative TV ad against Mr. McAuliffe in the Washington and Richmond areas … the organization’s primary focus is to directly take on the Democratic bare-knuckle strategy — and not just neutralize it, but throw it back at the attackers.
The concept behind FFT’s ad is to give Virginia voters a context in which to view the McAuliffe attacks. The group’s TV spot notes that there is a “gang” supporting Mr. McAuliffe: the leaders of the Democratic Party; an elitist media; Wall Street liberals; outside partisan groups; Hollywood.
Having specified who is doing the smearing on Mr. McAuliffe’s behalf, the spot goes on to explain why the groups want Mr. McAuliffe to win: To impose an agenda that Virginians truly would view as nuts. Employing a potent list of “geography verbs,” the ad finishes: “Tell these McAuliffe puppeteers, this is Virginia. We won’t let you Detroit us with taxes and debt. You will not California Virginia with regulations that kill jobs, or Hollywood our families and schools. You will not bring District of Columbia tax and spend to our state. Tell them: You can’t have Virginia.”
One merit of the ad is that, while it directly addresses the left’s scorched-earth campaign, it doesn’t stoop to responding to the accusations against Mr. Cuccinelli. (The ad doesn’t even mention the candidate.) Another attribute is that it switches voter attention away from the wild Cuccinelli caricature and onto all the failed Democratic policies—like the ones that produced soaring energy prices, health-care rationing and huge deficits—that Mr. McAuliffe seems desperate to avoid discussing.
Indeed, the whole idea here is to turn the tables, to get the GOP back on offense, rather than offering cringing defenses of positions that are in fact widely shared by a center-right country.
But this past weekend was when the McAuliffe campaign wheels came off.
After the mainstream media disgracefully failed to hold McAuliffe accountable for his record of false statements, failed endeavors, empty rhetoric, and hyper-liberal agenda, we believe our ads made them take notice.
The Washington Post revealed a series of embarrassing details in McAuliffe’s professional career where he made millions while the organizations and investments he was involved in cratered or failed. Also, The Richmond Times-Dispatch ran a Sunday editorial harshly criticizing McAuliffe for being an “unserious” candidate for Governor.
This morning, a Bearing Drift/Conquest Communications poll confirmed McAuliffe’s cratering poll numbers. McAuliffe now by the narrowest of margins: 36-35, with 11 percent to a third candidate, 19 percent undecided and a margin of error of five percent.
Douglas Wilder, a former Democratic Governor of Virginia and former Mayor of Richmond, when he was recently asked this weekend on MSNBC’s “Up with Steve Kornacki” why Virginia Democrats couldn’t find a better nominee that McAuliffe, responded, “That’s a very good question.”
Now is the time to put away the absurd possibility that an unqualified political hack and liberal embed like Terry McAuliffe could ever govern a commonwealth as important as Virginia.
Cuccinelli and McAuliffe will appear in a pivotal, statewide televised debate in prime time this Wednesday night, airing across the state’s NBC affiliates.
Soon the whole nation will be looking at the Virginia election, as it is the only competitive race of any major significance in 2013.
It is time for conservatives across the country to stand up for strong conservative candidates like Ken Cuccinelli.
If Ken Cuccinelli wins the Governor’s race, it will deny the Clinton machine a political prize in on the way to returning to the White House, and deny the Obama White House a new state under Democratic control.
We must fight – for tomorrow.
Mackowiak is executive director of the national Super PAC Fight For Tomorrow. Learn more at FightForTomorrow.com.