Rick Santorum’s baggage is a little heavier in Pa. than in other states, something Mitt Romney sought to highlight in a negative ad to launch today. But in a mix of tact and tactics, his campaign decided to pull the spot out of respect for the Santorum family’s ongoing concern over daughter Bella’s health.
“We have done this out of deference to Sen. Santorum’s decision to suspend his campaign for personal family reasons,” said Andrea Saul, Romney spokesperson, first reported by Salena Zito of the Tribune Review. “We have instructed stations this morning to pull the current ad ASAP and until further notice.”
The ad hammers Santorum for his 17 point loss to Bob Casey in 2006 and emphaaizes the historic margin of the defeat.
“Rick Santorum’s 17-point loss: ‘historically embarrassing.’ Rick Santorum lost his home county by 30 points,” says a narrator. The ad cuts to a newscast describing the details of the defeal.
“We fired him as senator, why promote him to president?” the narrator asks.
The Romney campaign will replace it shortly, a spokesperson said. The video above aired in the Harrisburg market around noon Monday. It takes several hours at least to change out an ad.
Romney’s campaign launched a massive $2.9 TV campaign today, a total that the National Journal notes is more than he’s spent in any state besides Florida.
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3 Responses
Santorum’s daughter’s health is heartbreaking. No parent can read this and not empathize. All the best to Rick Santorum and his family. Bella is giving us all a life lesson that we need to remember when we get entangled with political passion.
Except the ad wasn’t pulled, at least from WHTM in Harrisburg, where it ran at least 3 times in the 6 PM – 6:30 PM news slot last night. I’m sure the Romney campaign will say that wasn’t their fault, but they knew that stations couldn’t pull the ad on such short notice, so they were trying to get the good will of announcing they were pulling the ad and get the impact of the negative ad at the same time.
Miffens pulled the ad bc it was hurting him more with focus groups. No compassion from a RINO