The first campaign ad in the race for Michigan governor will start airing tomorrow (Wed.). In fact, Governor Rick Snyder is launching his ad campaign before he’s formally announced he’s a candidate.
The statewide ad buy is modest, but it comes as Snyder continues to insist he should not be treated as if he’s running for reelection.
“I’m not an announced candidate,” he says. “I’m happy being governor and I’m focused on being governor.”
Snyder has said he expects to formally announce his reelection plans next year, but he made them plain this past weekend at the Michigan Republican Leadership Conference on Mackinac Island. A five-minute campaign video was unveiled, the governor asked people to sign petitions to put his name on the ballot next year, and he said he’s looking to keep the job for another four years.
The 60-second “One Successful Nerd” spot is a trimmed down version of the campaign video. Here’s the script:
(voiceover:) “We were fiftieth out of fifty.
Dead last.
It took a nerd who’d grown up in a nine hundred square foot house, to turn things around.
This new governor has kept his word, ignored politics, and produced incredible results.
Our one and a half billion-dollar deficit? Gone.
Michigan’s economy? Best in ten years. Best employment numbers in four years…
In record time, Michigan is back on a solid foundation.
And coming soon, a return to vocational training, lower cost college degrees, and Michigan companies helping Michigan companies to produce great new jobs.
We’ll never be fiftieth out of fifty again. Because we chose Rick Snyder, a governor whose most thrilling nighttime reading was a budget.”
(Rick Snyder:) “It’s a nerdy job, but someone has to do it.”
This ad debuts even earlier in the election cycle – 13 months before the November 2014 election -- than last time around, when Snyder was almost unknown and used the Super Bowl to launch his “One Tough Nerd” spot.
Democrats say the early ad buy shows Republicans are already worried. Former Congressman Mark Schauer is running as the Democrat to face the governor next year. His campaign quickly capitalized on the ad buy with a fundraising appeal.
