New Blackburn ad features people saying they once backed Bredesen
NASHVILLE — With polls showing U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen is picking up support from some Tennessee GOP voters in his race with Republican Marsha Blackburn, Blackburn’s campaign on Thursday released a new ad aimed at helping bring them back into the fold.
The ad, titled “Non-Starter,” features seven unidentified men and women who claim they voted for Bredesen during his prior successful campaigns for governor but don’t back him in the Senate race.
“I voted Phil Bredesen for governor,” said one woman in the 30-second spot. A man said “I supported him.” And a third woman chimes in saying, “But I cannot support Bredesen for Senate.”
The ad comes as a Fox News poll released a day earlier shows Blackburn narrowly leading Bredesen by 3 percent. A week earlier, NBC News released a survey showing Bredesen edging out Blackburn by 2 percent. Polling margins of error in both make the contest a dead heat.
Among other things, the Fox poll showed that 16 percent of people who said they backed President Donald Trump in 2016 told surveyers they support Bredesen.
Blackburn’s ad, paid for by a joint committee formed by her campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, features the individuals citing concerns with Bredesen, who said, if elected to the Senate, he will continue the same moderate positions that made him popular as governor.
After losing his first race for governor in 1994, Bredesen narrowly won his second bid in 2002, exploiting discord among conservative and moderate Republicans. In 2006, Bredesen won all 95 counties.
Blackburn’s ad features various speakers citing concerns ranging from his opposition to Trump’s border wall to his criticisms of Trump’s tax cuts, which he said tilt heavily to the rich.
One woman said in the ad she was unhappy over his contributing to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, saying Bredesen’s support for “Crooked Hillary” is a “nonstarter for me.”
Bredesen’s campaign sought to cast doubt on the people featured in the ad with spokeswoman Alyssa Hansen saying in an email that it is “purportedly depicting Tennessee registered voters who claim to have voted for Phil Bredesen before but supposedly won’t this year.
“We’d like to issue a polite ‘Transparency in TV’ challenge to Team Blackburn,” Hansen continues. “The NRSC is notorious for using actors [versus real voters] in their attack ads.”
She said registered voters featured in Bredesen’s latest ad agreed to release their names and did: Ann Johnson, a Williamson County businesswoman; Heather Powell, a public school parent from Nashville; Jack Pratt, a Wilson County farmer; Marianne Schroer, a Franklin civic leader and Frank Stevenson, a Nashville faith leader.
“From our perspective, this is a campaign about authenticity, ideas, and — above all else — honesty,” Hansen said. “Hopefully, Congresswoman Blackburn’s campaign will be as transparent as Governor Bredesen has told us to be.”
Blackburn spokeswoman Abbi Sigler said in response that “the voters featured in these ads are real, unpaid Tennessee voters.”
She did not respond to a request for names.