NRCC tries another reboot
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From USA Today…
House Republicans are targeting popular “mommy blog” websites in a digital ad campaign beginning Tuesday as part of an ongoing effort to repair the GOP’s image with certain voting blocs — in this case swing female voters — who have sided decisively with Democrats in recent elections.
The banner ads will be featured on over 100 websites popular among women and geo-targeted to be viewed by residents in 20 Democratic-held congressional districts targeted by the GOP for 2014. The House Republican campaign operation is increasing its use of niche digital ad marketing for the upcoming election cycle. They used a similar strategy targeting Democrats on the unpopular automatic spending cuts known as sequester in March.
The $20,000 ad buy, running on sites including Ikeafans.com and MarthaStewart.com through Friday, will call on Democrats to vote with House Republicans next week on a bill to give hourly private sector workers more flexibility to choose between compensatory time and cash payment for overtime work. […]
The legislative effort is not expected to garner much Democratic support because it has long been opposed by labor unions and Democratic interests who argue it is a backdoor attempt to weaken workers’ rights to overtime pay.
* The NRCC sent along a sample ad…
The ads link to an online petition.
* NRCC statement…
“It’s a shame that Bill Enyart is willing to play politics while working moms and their kids need a voice to fight for them in Congress. It’s time for Enyart to stop forcing women to choose between work and family and start protecting the needs of all Illinois families.” – NRCC Spokeswoman Katie Prill
Think it’ll make any difference?
* But this may be a more important issue for Enyart…
The federal government won’t make a decision for years on whether to close Scott Air Force Base, but leaders in southwestern Illinois fear growing budget pressures in Washington could affect the facility’s future.
Illinois’ congressional delegation has vowed to work to keep the base open, even though the next round of closures won’t begin taking place until at least 2015.
U.S. Department of Defense officials have said the military has more infrastructure than needed, and Illinois lawmakers fear the base will stay on the chopping block as the costs of Medicare and other government-funded social programs continue to soar, forcing spending reductions in other areas of the federal budget.
“If we don’t reform our entitlement programs, discretionary dollars will continue to get cut, which puts Scott more at risk,'’ Republican U.S. Rep. John Shimkus told the newspaper.
* More…
U.S. Rep. Bill Enyart, D-Belleville, who replaced Costello in January, is seen as a strong voice for Scott. A former commander of the Illinois National Guard, Enyart serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
Enyart spoke optimistically of community-wide efforts to protect Scott. It’s a campaign bolstered by the fact the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command cited the St. Louis region’s strong support for military personnel at Scott Air Force Base as the reason for awarding the region the prestigious Abilene Trophy. The trophy is to be awarded officially in June.
“The folks are pulling together because they know how important it is,” Enyart said. “We’re going to be working very diligently to make sure that Scott isn’t impacted by BRAC … This is not a partisan issue. This is our region, our economy, and we’re all working together.”
- Robert the Bruce - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 9:25 am:
$20,000 across 20 CDs? Not enough to make any difference.
- G. Willickers - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 9:48 am:
The NRCC (and Republicans in general) have different problems with women that won’t go away as long as they continue to put John Birchers and Tea Partiers front and center.
“Legitimate” Aiken, “Gift” Mourdock, etc. all had a bigger impact than any mid-size banner ad will.
Nationally, there were more Democratic votes for the House last fall than GOP votes. The only thing that kept the gavel in Boehner’s hand was gerrymandering.
- CircularFiringSquad - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 10:01 am:
Can anyone explain what the magoo’s are talking about? Any ad where you need the wing nut decoder ring to translate is a looooooser
Fire, Aim, Ready
- wishbone - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 10:02 am:
Cut Medicare to keep a worthless Air Force base open. Makes sense to me.
- hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 10:11 am:
Is eliminating overtime pay for working women really the best pander to moms that the gop can come up
with? YabB
- hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 10:12 am:
Oh phone typing is fun.
- promises promises - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 10:18 am:
Let’s repair the GOP image? You mean remind everyone that the only thing we have to offer is shrill criticism of our opponents?
- Downstater - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 10:25 am:
Let’s repair the GOP image? You mean remind everyone that the only thing we have to offer is shrill criticism of our opponents?
Let’s repair the GOP image? You mean remind everyone that the only thing we have to offer is shrill criticism of our opponents?
=Let’s repair the GOP image? You mean remind everyone that the only thing we have to offer is shrill criticism of our opponents=
Yes, like criticism of the way the democrats have taken Illinois to the brink of financial bankruptcy.
- Chavez-respecting Obamist - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 10:32 am:
As if the GOP thinks woman ought to work. We’re supposed to be making them sandwiches, not trying to balance work and home.
- Deep South - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 10:39 am:
===Yes, like criticism of the way the democrats have taken Illinois to the brink of financial bankruptcy.===
So you don’t like the Democrats? Which Republican are you pointing to as the messiah who can actually solve these problems?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 10:41 am:
===Yes, like criticism of the way the democrats have taken Illinois to the brink of financial bankruptcy.===
We NEED to “Fire Madigan”… and make sure every COUNTY votes and is perfectly equal to “C’r'ook” County and Shee-Cago.
Yikes!
To the Post,
Those “female education” ads, as pointed out, are too cheap in pruchase to bring the discussion forward, and seem quite Dopey for its audience.
As to Enyart, Scott AFB, and Enyart’s re-election, the Base itself is a symbol of Congressman Enyart’s strength if he gets the base “saved”, and a “failure” if it closes, reduces capacity, whatever is NOT keeping the base as-is.
To that, any Freshman, be it Enyart, or if Plummer would have won, will be low in position to make that “ask”, even if they are in the Majority in Congress, or of the President’s Party and in the Minority.
My point is this might be above what Enyart can personally do, but well within Enyart catching all the blame, or reaping all the praise.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 10:55 am:
If the NRCC is trying to get the attention of working moms, an on-line ad should contain the phrase “80% Off!” or it is very likely to be ignored. On the other hand, who wouldn’t want “more freedom?”
As for Scott AFB, I predict that Enyart will take full credit for saving it but that Dick Durbin, recently named chair of the Senate Armed Forces Appropriations committee, will be almost solely responsible for keeping Scott open and thriving for at least the next two years.
Count on it.
- MrJM - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 11:04 am:
At first I was confused by the ad because its graphic makes it appear that Rep. Enyart is opposed by howling babies.
But then I remembered that it was an NRCC ad and it all made sense.
– MrJM
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 11:05 am:
–“If we don’t reform our entitlement programs, discretionary dollars will continue to get cut, which puts Scott more at risk,’’ Republican U.S. Rep. John Shimkus told the newspaper.–
Is money for Scott discretionary? How about an argument that it’s critical for the defense of the United States?
The United States spends more on the military than the next 13 largest defense spenders combined.
The United States has 10 100K ton Nimitz nuclear powered carrier groups, plus another nine conventionally powered light carriers.
No other nation has more than one conventional carrier. For the first time, China launched and landed a jet from its sole Soviet era carrier last year.
The rest of the world has given up trying to compete militarily with the United States. When NATO launched it’s Libya campaign, our allies could not sustain bombing sorties against a prostate Third World country without United States’ resources. They literally could not pound sand.
We’re being played for chumps. If the federal government is to be the employer of first choice, let’s spend it one something that’s productive.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/07/everything-chuck-hagel-needs-to-know-about-the-defense-budget-in-charts/
- Ahoy! - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 11:13 am:
Republicans need to change a lot of their policy agenda, including their party platform to garner more female voters. I agree with the premise of the legislation (I’m not familiar with the details), but one small piece of legislation isn’t going to start winning females over to a party that can be hostile to women.
- Endangered Moderate Species - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 11:26 am:
===U.S. Department of Defense officials have said the military has more infrastructure than needed===
We have a GOP that touts, “government should be run like a business”. Yet when an actual business decision is placed in front of them they turn the topic to entitlement programs.
===“If we don’t reform our entitlement programs, discretionary dollars will continue to get cut, which puts Scott more at risk,’’===
The banner ad just seems to come off as disingenuous and that seems to be a recurring perception the GOP must work to overcome.
- hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 11:41 am:
Ahoy - what is the premise of the legislation that you like if you are not up on the details?
Because I’m pretty sure the premise of the legislation is to let employers work you more than 40 hours per week without paying time and a half wages and instead give out comp time off from work controlled by the employer.
This flex time for moms stuff is just their sexist way of marketing the bill as if only moms are involved in parenting and as if women are too stupid to notice that under this bill they would still be away from their kids the same number of hours but they’d just bring home a smaller paycheck than if their employer had to pay overtime under existing law.
- Pick2 - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 12:21 pm:
Very hard to go against Enyart if he works with Shimkus to save Scott.
- Will Caskey - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 2:09 pm:
Oh thank god for the NRCC, I was just thinking my eye-rolling muscles needed a good workout.
- Keep Calm and Carry On - Tuesday, Apr 30, 13 @ 2:49 pm:
Good to see them entering the modern era of communications.
Have to start somewhere after living in a cave for so many years.
- Android Guru - Tuesday, May 7, 13 @ 3:18 am:
Hi there colleagues, how is the whole thing, and what you wish for to say on the topic of this article, in my view its actually awesome in favor of me.