Pro-Romney groups launch positive ads
WASHINGTON -- Here’s a new tack by outside groups: running positive ads.
After spending much of the year lacerating President Obama, the pro-Mitt Romney groups Restore Our Future and Crossroads GPS both unveiled new television spots on Tuesday praising the GOP challenger’s personal generosity and caring.
The change in tone came a day after Romney struck a genial and nonconfrontational approach in his final debate against the incumbent president.
The Restore Our Future commercial, called “Genuinely Cares,” features Peter Damon, a retired Army sergeant and Iraq veteran who lost both of his legs and met Romney while recovering at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington. The ads discusses Romney’s support for a charity that builds homes for severely injured veterans.
“The Mitt Romney I know cares deeply about people who are struggling,” Damon says. “Mitt Romney helped make a huge difference in my life.”
The super PAC said the ad would run Oct. 23 to Oct. 29 as part of a $17.7 million buy in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The Crossroads GPS commercial features Ted and Pat Oparowski, members of Romney’s church who gave one of the most poignant speeches at the Republican National Convention when they related how Romney had helped write a will for their 14-year-old son before he died of lymphoma.
“To spend time with a 14-year-old boy in his last days -- you cannot help but know that he is caring, he cares about people and their needs, and he’s going to be able to get us back on track,” Pat Oparowski says in the spot.
Crossroads GPS said it was spending $4.2 million to run the ad in Wisconsin and Ohio.
Despite the shift in tone, the groups are not letting up the pressure on Obama. As part of its new ad campaign, Restore Our Future is also airing a spot featuring shuttered storefronts and a worried young couple that assails “Barack Obama’s economy.”
Follow Politics Now on Twitter and Facebook
Twitter: @mateagold
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox three times per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
