Smart Savage ad vs. Farley

An effective ad from Democratic state Senate candidate Susan Savage, who is running against Republican Sen. Hugh Farley. Savage is chairwoman of the Schenectady County Legislature, where she is proposing a 0.3 percent tax decrease this year. The ad touts tax cuts as a cause of Schenectady's revitalization. To the extent that the revitalization is real, it is largely the product of the Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority, which is not directly controlled by the county (although Savage has played a generally positive role). Metroplex is, in fact, largely the creation of Farley, for which he has taken a lot of criticism from right-wing talk-show host Paul Vandenburgh. In this Tea Party climate, it may be inconvenient for a Republican to take credit for a government program like Metroplex, and smart for a Democrat to run as a tax cutter.

Democratic political advertising has generally been superior in New York, helping, for example, to elect Scott Murphy to Congress over Jim Tedisco in 2009. This should be a Republican year, and Farley has won by wide margins for than 30 years -- but he would be wise to find a good ad agency.

Comments

[Matthew]

Its certainly debatable that Dem political advertising had much to do Murphy's win & more to do w/ Tedisco being bankrupt of ideas that resonated w/ the electorate.

[Bob Conner]

I thought Murphy's ads with his wife's family were effective, and his other positive stuff. Tedisco went too negative, which was particularly ineffective because Murphy didn't have a record yet so the ads sounded desparate and nasty.