GOP to Launch Ads for Bush to Parry Democrats’ Spots

Responding to the Democratic Party’s multimillion-dollar advertising blitz, Republican Party leaders and the George W. Bush campaign said Friday they would soon hit the airwaves with their own ads praising the Texas governor.

Republican National Committee officials said they would start the ad campaign with a 60-second spot trumpeting Bush’s plan to partially privatize Social Security.

GOP buyers were purchasing air time in the same 15 states where a Democratic ad featuring Gore discussing prescription drug prices started running Thursday. Republican officials said the ad also would air in two states where the Gore spot is not, Arkansas and Maine.

Republicans spent an estimated $2.2 million on air time for the spot, which is set to run Monday through June 18 in several media markets surveyed by The Times.

The RNC spot starts by trying to blunt Gore’s bid to seize credit for the nation’s economic growth, as an announcer declares: “With our nation at peace and more prosperous than ever, now is the time to find real solutions to America’s problems. George Bush knows that to keep our commitment to seniors, we must strengthen and improve Social Security now.”

Bush has proposed allowing Social Security recipients to invest some of their money in the stock market. Gore has derided the plan as risky, warning that some people will lose the benefits if they invest the money poorly.

The RNC ad, paid for in part with “soft money” contributions, comes as both parties are rapidly intensifying the campaign advertising war leading up to their conventions. Through a legal loophole, the parties are permitted to use the unlimited soft-money donations to pay for “issue advocacy,” which the parties say can include advertisements so long as they don’t explicitly tell viewers to vote for or against a candidate. Often, the “issue ads” are indistinguishable from campaign ads.

The parties also say they are allowed to coordinate their advertising with the campaigns--a practice criticized by federal auditors after the 1996 election. Both parties are using consultants who are also working for their candidates’ campaigns. The GOP spot was produced by media consultant Alex Castellanos, whose firm is also purchasing air time for Bush.

On a second front Friday, the Bush campaign worked to cut into Gore’s support, officially unveiling its first ads of the general election. The four 30-second clips spotlight the Texas governor’s nephew, George P. Bush, whom the campaign intends to use to woo younger and Latino voters.

The son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his Mexican American wife, Columba, speaks fluent Spanish and has campaigned for his uncle in New Hampshire and California.

The telegenic 24-year-old speaks only in Spanish in one ad, only English in another, and in two others he switches between languages, an increasingly common technique in commercial advertising targeting young Latinos.

To be sure, the marketing of the younger Bush is a message itself--putting a Latino face front-and-center is designed to make the campaign appear inclusive. Bush’s campaign has already cut several other spots featuring him.

In two of the spots, the nephew introduces himself as “a young Latino in the U.S. and very proud of my bloodline.” Not until the end of the spot does he reveal that he has an uncle running for president. He ends by saying, “His name? The same as mine. George Bush.”

Lionel Sosa, one of the governor’s media consultants, said the “surprise” of the youth’s identity will “help carry the message. . . . We just want people to see this young man and see how sincerely he believes in his family.”

In the two Spanish-English spots, Bush speaks over a dance beat while the camera quickly shifts from color images to grainy black-and-white, sometimes at sharp angles, in a style common to MTV.

In one spot, the nephew says his uncle will be “un gran presidente. That is the reason, esta es la razon, why I will vote for him.”

Bush advisors said the ad would air only in the New York television market. It will run during television coverage of Sunday’s Puerto Rican Day parade in Manhattan. The nephew is scheduled to march in the event.

The ad also bolsters the GOP’s effort to lure Latino voters, long viewed as a Democratic-leaning bloc. About two months ago, the RNC aired an ad in Fresno in which a Latina asks voters to keep an “open mind” about voting for GOP.

“It’s going to be extremely important that we let every Latino know the governor wants [their] support,” Sosa said. “George P. Bush is a good messenger to carry that message.”