Bradley’s 1st TV Ad Airs Today in Iowa

Aides to Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley unveiled his first television spot Tuesday, a 60-second commercial aimed at broadening his resume for voters in Iowa and New Hampshire and hammering home his Senate experience and concerns on race and health care.

The ad is a pastiche of black-and-white photos from Bradley’s youth and career and video tributes from senators and loyalists--all ending with the tag line, “It can happen.” The slogan is a positivist catch phrase reminiscent of Nike’s “Just do it” ads and was coined in secrecy over the last year by a group of Madison Avenue consultants known as the Crystal Group, named for Bradley’s hometown of Crystal City, Mo.

The television spots air today through much of Iowa and will be carried across New Hampshire starting Thursday. The first week of television time will cost $48,860 in New Hampshire and $164,980 in Iowa, said Kristen Ludecke, a Bradley spokeswoman.

The ad features a succession of faded photographs from Bradley’s life as a basketball star and Rhodes scholar and stills of his speeches on the Senate floor. Most of the Senate photos appear several years old, featuring a slightly more youthful-looking Bradley than the 56-year-old version now out on the campaign trail.

The still photos alternate with tributes by Democratic Sens. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York. Moynihan lauds Bradley for his role in the passage of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, saying, “Bill made it happen.” Kerrey recounts Bradley’s angry tapping of pencils on a Senate lectern during a speech to denounce the 56 police baton blows rained on motorist Rodney G. King by Los Angeles officers in 1991.

Mark Longabaugh, Bradley’s campaign director in New Hampshire, said the ad was a first chance to “educate voters who may not know all about Bill Bradley’s background,” provide a sense of his “conscience” and reformer’s streak and home in on his call for sweeping changes in health care.

The ad ends with the testimony of Maureen Drumm, a Philadelphia-area woman who says her second child, Maura, “is alive today” because of a Bradley proposal to allow women to stay in a hospital 48 hours after childbirth. Drumm was at risk of an early childbirth in 1995. Her first child developed jaundice after being born six weeks prematurely. Drumm feared she would be forced from her hospital room too soon after her second child’s birth--as was the practice at the time at many hospitals because of cost-cutting pressures from health insurance companies.

Drumm said that soon after she contacted the senator, “he gave me a tremendous response.” In turn, she spoke out in support of a Bradley-sponsored amendment passed by the Senate in September 1996 that mandated health providers to allow pregnant mothers to stay in hospital rooms as long as 48 hours.

Drumm’s daughter was born before the law was passed, but Drumm was given pre-approval by her health group to stay as long as necessary in the hospital. Drumm credited Bradley’s stance and public outcry over the case in forcing her insurer to alter its policy.

Drumm feared the second child could develop complications like her first child and said she believed the extra time in the hospital allowed doctors to make sure the baby was healthy before being sent home. Maura Drumm was born three weeks prematurely but with no complications, Drumm said.

Even before the Bradley ad was released, Gore spokesman Chris Lehane dismissed the spot as a “slick Madison Avenue” effort. If Bradley wants “a truly different kind of campaign . . . all he has to do is accept Al Gore’s challenge to have a series of policy debates.”

The Bradley ads, plus other video presentations, can be seen on his Web site: https://www.billbradley.com.

Also Tuesday, the camp of Republican candidate Steve Forbes said it will file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that a television ad by the moderate Republican Leadership Council amounts to an illegal contribution to GOP front-runner George W. Bush.

The ad, appearing in Iowa and New Hampshire, warns Forbes against running the kind of negative campaign he unleashed on Bob Dole in 1996. Forbes also unveiled three TV ads on Tuesday, but none mentions Bush. They instead outline Forbes’ economic plans while touting him as “a champion of economic growth.”

Times staff writer Matea Gold contributed to this story.