Note: I work for the Courage Campaign
California’s Sarah Palin (aka Meg Whitman) has taken notice of the Courage Campaign radio ad launched today on radio stations across the state educating the public about Whitman’s position on global warming. She just sent this email out to her list:
Dear Supporter,
A group of liberal activists headed by Howard Dean’s former California campaign chair today launched a negative radio ad attacking Meg Whitman for her common-sense, pro-jobs environmental policies.
Fight back with Meg. She has led the call to put a one-year moratorium on California’s AB 32, which has been estimated to negatively affect one million jobs in California. California cannot afford to hastily implement new environmental regulations that could further delay our economic recovery.
Coincidentally, the attack ad debuted on the same day that a new poll was released showing that Meg is beating the likely Democratic nominee Jerry Brown among independent voters.
National Democrats have already named Meg a top target and now the liberal “Courage Campaign” is taking up the call.
See their attack here.
Can we count on you to help beat these special interest groups and restore California? If you can contribute $15, $25 or $50, please link here to help fight back.
It’s not surprising that Democrats and their special interest groups are already working hard to try to defeat Meg in the Republican primary. They want their chosen candidate, likely Jerry Brown, to face a different, weaker Republican candidate next November. We are not going to let that happen.
Thank you,
Jillian Hasner
Campaign Manager, Meg Whitman 2010
Some quick points. First, it was indeed entirely coincidental that our ad launched the day the PPIC poll came out. We’d been planning this ad for about a week now, but had no clue that PPIC was even doing a poll, certainly not that they were going to release it today. Not that it would have made any difference.
Contrary to Jillian Hasner’s claims, the Courage Campaign does not endorse candidates for elected office. Jerry Brown is not our “chosen candidate” – we don’t have one, period.
The Courage Campaign’s goal is simply to make the public aware of Whitman’s views on global warming legislation. Specifically, that she believes AB 32 should be suspended.
Looks like we’ve succeeded in that quest. If you want to help get that message aired more broadly on radio stations in California, click here to listen to the ad and donate to expand the buy.
I’m not sure about other Democrats, but personally, if a Republican were to win the Governor’s race in 2010, I’d much rather it be Poizner or Campbell, than Whitman.
These ads, publicizing Whitman’s intent to suspend AB 32, would seem to only assist her in winning her Republican primary.
Maybe, unbeknown to me, Courage Campaign prefers Whitman over Poizner, as the Republican nominee, and has that as their secret intent. However, if that is not the case and we’re all simply assuming the inevitability of Whitman’s nomination, and this is simply an early start on the attacks, I would strongly suggest that we not count Poizner out, as he is the more merited candidate for Republicans to support (he fought Prop 93, he fought for redistricting reform, he turns out in elections; in addition to his entrepreneurial success, he’s actually done things to try to make government, in his view, better; and Governor isn’t the first thing he’s running for).
In short, I think it would be wise to save this stuff for after the primary.
I don’t suspect that courage campaign is necessarily intending to impact the primary with these ads, but it does probably help her, in her primary, to be able to say “the liberals are going after me, because I care more about restoring jobs for California’s families than reducing CO2 emissions (…blah, blah, blah)”
It would seem, however, that these ads definitely presume Whitman to be the Republican nominee. This is someone who has never held public office, ever. Courage Campaign would only be attacking her if they presume she’ll be the one challenging Democrats in November. I still think it would be wise to see if Poizner can knock her out, before investing in Whitman attacks.
However, I’ll admit that the presumption may be a very good one, and that I am simply in denial that one of the only-two major parties would nominate someone with zero public sector experience, who never votes, to, what I’d surely consider, the second most-important elected office in the United States.