Republican Seeks to Enliven Race With Multimedia Ads

The first television commercials of this year’s sleepy U.S. Senate race are scheduled to be unveiled today by the leading Republican contender for the seat, San Jose Rep. Tom Campbell.

The ads, according to Campbell’s campaign, will begin airing statewide Friday as part of a campaign that links the reach of television with the low-cost Internet. Campbell’s campaign said he expects to spend just over $1 million to air the commercials--an amount considered the bare minimum for an advertising campaign in California.

The ads are meant to introduce voters to Campbell, aides said, and focus on the one area where the social moderate is in lock-step with his party: fiscal conservatism.

“Tom Campbell for U.S. Senate,” says the ad, which the candidate says he will unveil at a news conference today in Los Angeles. “Tom Campbell takes no PAC money,” it continues, noting that a National Taxpayers Union survey found that in fiscal 1999-2000, no one in the House co-sponsored legislation with less spending attached to it than Campbell.

Campbell is vying with two conservative Republicans, state Sen. Ray Haynes of Riverside and San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn, for the nomination to challenge Democratic incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein next fall. Only Campbell has announced an intention to air TV ads before the primary.

The congressman’s ad shows the address of his revamped World Wide Web site, where the law professor’s often exhaustive views are on full display--without the onerous expense of TV time.

“My hope is that people will [use the Internet to] get a good amount of information about me,” said Campbell, whose district is in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Don Ringe, the veteran media consultant who created the ads, said their 10- and 15-second formats are unusually short--which keeps costs down but makes a detailed message almost impossible. “What this spot does is deliver a brief political message and try to get folks to the Web site for Tom’s views,” Ringe said.

Ringe’s 30 years in political advertising have included work for some of California’s best known officeholders, such as Ronald Reagan and former Gov. Pete Wilson.

Recent polls suggest Campbell is unknown to as many as two-thirds of voters.

“I am not convinced a 15-second spot is going to make any impression,” said Thomas O’Donnell, a Washington, D.C.-based Democratic media consultant, “especially with all the noise [of other political commercials] that will be on the air before the California primary.”

That rush of last-minute ads may not include any from the other candidates for U.S. Senate. “We still haven’t made our decision on whether to go on the air,” said Feinstein’s campaign manager, Kam Kuwata.

Haynes also said no final decision has been made on TV advertising.

“It all depends on the money,” he said, noting that he has at least three fund-raising events before the end of the week.

Haynes said he may advertise on radio, which costs less than television and has a more easily identifiable audience than television. “If I want to advertise in L.A., I go up with Rush [Limbaugh]--that’s my audience,” he said.

Horn said he also is considering radio advertising. He said he is making two radio ads, “one in Spanish and one in Vietnamese. I don’t know about English yet.”

“On cable [television], I have a TV commercial that we made for $800. I’ve got that on in San Diego and might do San Bernardino/Riverside, too. L.A. is too expensive,” Horn said.