The last time we here at AFP heard from the Beth Macy congressional campaign was on Sept. 1, eight days ago at this writing, and the reachout was to tell us that the campaign was beginning to run TV ads.
Breaking news there, indeed.
Before that, there was a release about getting an endorsement in the Sixth District race from EMILY’s List, and a few days prior to that one, we got a release about a bluegrass singer cutting a cringy new tune, which is the focus for the TV ads that began running last week.
That’s things coming full circle right there.
Over the mountain, we get more frequent contacts from the Tom Perriello campaign, though not necessarily of any more substance – mainly advisories about Perriello taking part in listening sessions at some location or the other in the far-flung Fifth District, or releases about John McGuire engaging in insider trading.
There was one this morning announcing a new TV ad.
Both campaigns seem fixated on getting the MAGA Republican incumbents to debate them, which is something that all underdog challengers do – is overestimate the importance of having a debate that only a relative handful of people who haven’t already decided who they’re going to vote for are ever going to see.
If I’m a decision-maker with either of the campaigns, I’m hitting my media list – and hitting it hard – on the daily, with comments from my candidate on the record about anything and everything of consequence.
In the Macy-Ben Cline race, man, there’s low hanging fruit with the edict from Donald Trump trying to undercut U.S. beef producers, with the top two beef-producing counties in the state being Augusta County and Rockingham County, in the heart of the Sixth District.
I’d make Cline wear that one like an anvil.
Another local issue that I’d highlight: the pollution permit requested by Northrop Grumman in Waynesboro, which locals are fighting, and getting no help from their own City Council, and certainly Ben Cline.
Is anybody in Team Macy even paying attention to the headlines?
Over in the Fifth, there are concerns from locals in Nelson County that the county is collaborating with a developer to locate a data center across the road from Nelson County High School.
Talk about low-hanging fruit!
Both Macy and Perriello could work to get Cline and McGuire on the defensive on the proposed $67 billion merger of NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy.
So what if that’s a state issue? People care about it, same as they care about a proposed local data center in Nelson County, pollution in Waynesboro, cattle farmers in Augusta County and Rockingham County.
They care about that stuff more than they care about a bluegrass jingle or the campaigns getting ready to run ads on TV during their football games.
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Chris Graham
