OUR ROLE
Our firm is proud to have a long track record of success in independent expenditure advocacy. In the Collin's race, we served clients One Nation America and Senate Leadership Fund. We helped these organizations secure re-election for Senator Collins by developing messages and executing media that ultimately won over Mainers.
BACKGROUND
Senator Collins was being attacked from all angles and her numbers reflected it. Her strong track record of success for Mainers was being clouded by endless attacks from her well-funded opponent, state house Speaker Sara Gideon. We began the race by reminding Maine voters of Susan's decades of service to the state and the major accomplishments she had delivered in that time. When those messages had penetrated and Sara's image was improving, we turned to contrast advertising.
SELECT SPOTS
Here are a few of the most impactful spots we produced for the race.
RUBY
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We needed to remind Mainers how hard Collins works for Maine and how long she has done what's best for families in Maine. We produced a series of spots that highlighted Senator Collins' strong advocacy for children with diabetes, including promoting research, new technology and lower cost of insulin. This spot, featuring 9 year old Ruby and her mom, emotionally demonstrated the strong connection they had with the Senator and how effective Susan Collins is for her constituents.
With the opposing candidate and party committees airing negative ads to deteriorate the Senator’s image, we needed to flood the state with a positive rebuke. Ruby’s story was an impactful, warm, and engaging narrative that clearly illustrated the impact of Senator Collin’s on the lives of everyday Mainers. Soon after ‘Ruby’ aired we began to mitigate the impact of our opponent’s negative message while maintaining the Senator’s image in a turbulent political environment.
Polling clearly showed this spot not only increased her favorables by over 10 points, but also moved numbers in the vote column. In a race that very few people thought was winnable, our strong positive spots helped remind voters in Maine what an important voice Susan Collins is in continuing to fight for Maine.
BOTH SIDES
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While our positive advertising for her helped, we also had to give voters a sense that her opponent, Sara Gideon, was actually the candidate who was out of touch with Maine and that it was Gideon who was they typical politician talking out of both sides of her mouth. We used the PPP to show the strong contrast. Senator Collins wrote the legislation for the Paycheck Protection Program which saved hundreds of thousands of Maine jobs.
While Gideon criticized the program and Collins and then hypocritically, her husband's law firm took over a million dollars from the same program Collins had authored. We end the spot by suggesting that, instead of criticizing Senator Collins, Sara Gideon should be thanking her. And we show an image of what looks to be Gideon hugging Susan Collins in thanks. Polling in the aftermath of this spot showed significant movement toward Collins and away from Gideon.
'Both Sides’ was so successful in subsequent research that it laid the foundation for future advertising that would further expose the Gideon’s millionaire status and cause voters to question whether they could really trust Sara with the important job of representing Maine in the U.S. Senate.
WINTER IS COMING
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While our positive advertising for her helped, we also had to give voters a sense that her opponent, Sara Gideon, was actually the candidate who was out of touch with Maine. Following our effective attacks and positives on the PPP issue, we the pivoted to the GGG, the Gideon Gas Gouge.
We needed to take the message straight to the voters' pocketbooks and show the direct effect on Maine families of Sara Gideon's proposed tax hikes. Utilizing the Game of Thrones theme of Winter is Coming, this tongue in cheek spot reminded Mainers of the crucial needs for gas and home heating oil and informed them that Sara Gideon was going to increase taxes on both. Toward the end of the election, the ad was timed to tap into Mainer's knowledge of the harsh winter.
This spot set up a strong series of spots to demonstrate Gideon's disregard for regular working Mainers and furthered the argument that millionaire Gideon was out of touch with the real needs of Maine. Polling confirmed that the message poked through.