My god, has there ever been a more confused and erratic campaign, message-wise (and pretty much every other way), than the Moran for Governor campaign? On so many issues, from payday lending to the environment, Moran's been all over the place. But it's on the "issue" of money that Moran's been most erratic.Just a few weeks ago, the Moran campaign was talking about how money really wasn't that important to their campaign, particularly with regard to TV advertising.
The third candidate in the Democratic primary for governor, Brian Moran, has not yet run TV ads and isn’t making them a significant part of his race.So, a few weeks ago, it was all about spending no money on TV, because Brian Moran was Jim Webb Part Deux. (Uh, Brian? I know Jim Webb, I drafted Jim Webb, and frankly you're no Jim Webb...)
Moran spokesman Jesse Ferguson said their campaign has focused on communicating with the hard-core Democratic voters who are expected to turn out for the primary.
That’s a strategy similar to one used by Sen. Jim Webb, who spent just $32,000 on TV advertising in a successful run against Harris Miller in the Democratic primary three years ago, Ferguson said.
Fast forward to today, with a Moran fundraising mailer that begs for money, money, and more $$$$$. To see the mailer, click here for page 1, here for page 2, here for page 3, and here for page 4. A few classic lines:
*"Voters may hate a candidate three months out because they are sick of repeated airings, but television ads are still the best way to get a message across. And people do wonder when a candidate doesn’t run any ads at all."
*"The ads show what is at stake in this election. I need to air them enough times to make an impression and motivate voters to action. That requires a fairly significant media investment. I plan to do that."
*Referring to the Richmond market, Moran says, "To ‘go up’ for ten days before the primary would cost over $50,000 to saturate the airwaves — every voter seeing a spot six times or more."
*"The way I see it, we’re on the verge of winning this primary, and we need $50,000 to close the deal.”
In other words, money is now not only a good thing, it's absolutely crucial to this endorsement-heavy, consultant-laden, money-hungry "grassroots" campaign. Now, it's all "television ads are still the best way to get a message across" and "people do wonder when a candidate doesn’t run any ads at all." Is this all clear now? Good.
Meanwhile, let's recall that Brian Moran began his campaign over a year ago against Creigh Deeds touting his fundraising prowess, with one email bragging that "Moran’s fundraising exceeds the amount raised by then-Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine and then-Attorney General Jerry Kilgore during the first half of 2004." Woo-hoo! Oh wait, that's a bad thing. No, it's a good thing. No, it's...argh!
After starting off as the classic, top-down, money-driven effort, the next iteration of the Moran campaign came after Terry McAuliffe's entry into the race, when Moran suddenly came to the forehead-slapping conclusion that "money is now bad...BAD!" It was during this period that we got Brian's infamous (not to mention hysterically laughable) "fighter not a fundraiser" line at the Virginia JJ dinner. But wait a minute, how did money go from being the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world to a terrible curse in just a few short months? Simple answer: the Moran campaign "brain trust" knew that Terry would raise a lot more money than Brian, whereas Brian would have raised a lot more money than Creigh. So, by transitive property of morality, money used to be good, now it's bad. What. Ever.
As I said, the Moran campaign could very well be the most confused campaign in terms of message (and pretty much every other way) ever. Can you imagine what Bob McDonnell would do to this rickety disaster if Democrats were foolish enough to make Brian Moran their nominee? What a nightmare.
