Kerry Healey has posted her first TV ad on her website. Here’s my do-it-yourself transcript:
Woman’s voice: It’s the big squeeze. Taxes go up every year. Gas prices through the roof. The legislature wastes more and more. Sky-high auto insurance rates.
Man’s voice: Kerry Healey has solutions. Immediate tax rollback. You voted for it. Suspend the gas tax. With a billion dollar surplus, we can afford it. Use the savings from pension reform to keep our property taxes down. Break up the auto insurance monopoly. Kerry Healey. Smart solutions that work.
A couple of noteworthy choices here. First, since no one really has any clue who Kerry Healey is, one might have expected to hear her voice at least once in her first TV ad. Nope – not a word from her, and in fact her face appears only for about one second, as a shot from what looks like the GOP convention flits across the screen. No soft-focus “I’m Kerry Healey and I’m running for Governor” approach here. Does she think it doesn’t matter if voters know who she is?
Second, interesting that it’s the woman’s voice listing what’s supposedly wrong with Massachusetts, and the man’s voice telling us that Kerry Healey knows how to fix it. Not necessarily what you’d expect from someone trying to become the first woman elected Governor in Massachusetts, and touting her recent “Women for Healey/Hillman” event with headliner Christie Todd Whitman.
Third, her tag-line message is startlingly similar to Chris Gabrieli’s: “Smart solutions that work” (Healey) vs. “Getting results” (Gabrieli). “No visionary campaign here, folks – just a likable technocrat trying to solve problems.” What was it that George H.W. Bush disparagingly said about “the vision thing” shortly before Bill Clinton kicked his ass out of office?
Fourth, a billion dollar surplus? Geez, that thing gets bigger every time I hear about it. Can’t wait to hear how big it’s going to be next week. Seriously, can someone who understands budget stuff please do a reality check on this?
Finally, did it occur to Healey command central that voters might have something else on their minds this week other than pension reform? Nary a word about the biggest governmental failure in recent Massachusetts history. It’ll be interesting to see how (or if) Tom Reilly, whose ads are also supposed to go public this week, handles the Big Dig situation.
Your reactions?
That’s a great way to discourage traffic around Boston, discourage pollution, discourage consumption of foreign oil, and encourage fairness by ensuring that those who don’t drive aren’t paying for the roads.
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Oh wait — no it isn’t.
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Nobody likes paying taxes, and nobody likes paying higher prices for gasoline. But, the gas tax is one of the few really good taxes out there. It’s progressive in every sense of the word. The poorest don’t pay much, since they tend not to own cars. Those who drive more (and hence use more roads) pay more. It allows decisions that are bad for foreign policy and bad for the environment (low MPG), but forces those who choose those decisions to bear some of that external cost.
Doesn’t the gas tax largely pay for road maintenance?
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Is this really a good time to suggest having less money to pay for road repair?
in the sense that gas tax is a revenue stream and road maintainance is an expense stream, sure. But, it’s not earmarked AFAIK. Since the gas tax doesn’t fluctuate (although the revenues might slightly), if the two are loosely tied, it would be because the legislature was tying road expenditures loosely to gas tax revenue.
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But, I don’t think eliminating the gas tax would stop road repair. It would just be one less revenue stream providing the tax base necessary for the government to operate.
…but of course the Reps usually score “A’s” when they go negative.
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If you been followed her for the last month (and all of us have) no surprise about the rollback, pension reform and the oldie but goodie–auto insurance reform. I tend to agree that the gas tax rollback won’t play well–but here’s where I’d like to see some polls…Andy, factcheck…can you help me out?
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I assume everything in that ad has been poll tested by Healey consultants and the gas tax must play OK. It does open her to criticism from Globe editorialist and her opponents–but having them criticize her as “a tax cutter” plays right into her script. “I want to lower the cost on living in the state–they want you to pay more taxes”.
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As for no Healey, not surprising. I think they’re going to run a “Rose Garden” strategy as long as they can. Sure, they’ll have to roll her out eventually, but if you put her out-front this early, folks in the press may expect her to have unscripted press conferences–and they can’t have that.
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Last point. The spot has been focus grouped. No I don’t have a “link” to prove this, but that’s what they do. (Assume Gab and maybe Reilly will have their spots focused grouped–they got the dough. Deval may or may not because of money, and his ads may write themselves.)
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So it really doesn’t matter what we think of the ads. It matters what those unenrolled voters, especially women (note the soccer team exiting the mini van), in the suburbs think about the ad.