Kasich PAC's Web Ads Target Delegates With Vision Of Victory
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — A super PAC backing John Kasich took its case for his presidential nomination directly to delegates this week in an unusual web ad.
New Day for America's 60-second spot, entitled "Convention," features footage of confetti falling on Kasich that makes it appear as if he has already won the Republican nod. Kasich is actually running third among the three GOP contenders left in the race — and he still has earned fewer delegates than Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who dropped out weeks ago.
Looking like a Ken Burns-style retrospective, the spot's voiceover reports the Republican nomination "goes to John Kasich!" as he and his family wave to a crowd at what was actually his announcement speech back in July. The historian-narrator, seeming to speak to future generations, tells viewers why delegates threw their support behind the Ohio governor: "They nominated the only candidate who could win the only election that mattered. The candidate who was presidential. John Kasich."
The PAC says the spot is part of "a multi-state digital delegate-targeting strategy" ahead of a convention in Cleveland that they anticipate will be contested. The ad was released this week before Trump swept primaries in five more states. Trump labeled himself the "presumptive nominee" in that night's victory speech.
John Green, director of the University of Akron's Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, said Kasich's backers have two reasons for taking the historical retrospective approach. One is to justify Kasich's continued candidacy.
The other is "to influence the debate over the role of the convention as an independent decision-making event," he said. "Here the key phrase is 'the only election that matters,' namely the general election." Kasich's campaign has emphasized polls that show him with the strongest chance of beating Hillary Clinton if she is the Democrats' nominee this fall.
Green said the effort has the potential to backfire.
"'Delegates' are technically representatives of the voters, especially in primary states — so going against the voters' wishes could be problematic," he said in an email. "But it will be less so if no candidate wins on the first ballot and if the party is deadlocked after several ballots."
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