New ads from Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection are pushing swing-vote senators to back climate and clean-energy legislation, touting the job-creation angle.
The TV and radio ad campaign is targeted at moderate Democratic and Republican senators from fossil fuel–dependent, manufacturing-heavy Midwestern and Southern states: Blanche Lincoln (D) and Mark Pryor (D) of Arkansas, Evan Bayh (D) and Dick Lugar (R) of Indiana, Kit Bond (R) and Claire McCaskill (D) of Missouri, and Kent Conrad (D) and Byron Dorgan (D) of North Dakota. ACP plans to roll out ads in four additional states later this month.
“These senators represent the heartland of America, states hardest hit by our economic downturn but with the most to gain from jump-starting our economy and creating jobs with a new clean energy policy,” ACP spokesperson Brian Rogers told Grist.
The TV ads feature a generic-looking white suburban father talking to the camera. “The folks in Washington need to stop arguing and help people get back to work,” he says in the ad targeted at Bayh. “Take clean energy jobs. Now America talks about ’em, yet China’s creating ’em. Are we forgetting we need those jobs in Indiana?”
“Look, the future’s in clean energy — wind and solar,” he continues. “The question is, who’s gonna to build it?”
The group is also running radio ads targeting the senators. One aimed at Pryor tells voters to call his office and “urge him to stand up for Arkansas jobs, clean energy and our nation’s security.” It highlights a 2005 quote from Pryor in which he said, “We need to take ambitious steps to reduce our country’s increasing dependence on foreign oil. Fortunately, the solution will result in Americans manufacturing and using cleaner, healthier energy sources. We’re talking about a win for national security, the environment, our children, and the economy.”
In a more general ACP ad being run on national cable, entitled “Family Values,” the same folksy dad argues that families would benefit from climate legislation that would provide new jobs, a cleaner environment, and decreased dependence on oil.
“Reading about Washington these days, I gotta ask, ‘What’s in it for me?'” the dad says. “I’m not looking for a bailout — just a good paying job. That’s why I like this clean energy idea.”
“I hope our senators are listening,” the ad concludes.
ACP would not say how much it’s spending on the ad campaign, other than to acknowledge that the investment is “substantial.” The ads will run through Labor Day, right up until senators return to Washington following their August recess.
Here is video of the Bayh ad, followed by the national ad:
