More random thoughts on the campaign - sorry, these may be coming for weeks…

First, the biggie of course was Spike…  I had some information that was sent to me looking at a comparison of Spike’s judicial race versus Jim Rowe’s in 2004.

Wow, the comparison is scarily similar.

Of course, the Monaco Massacre had an effect here in the Kanawha Valley especially, but you can’t help but look at the numbers and be blown away by their similarity down the line, county-by-county.

The point here is this may have had as much to do with Spike being a “business Democrat,” or as some people are calling them, Chamber-crats, as it did with the Monaco photos.

Unfortunately, this is another case of the business-oriented Democrats being unable to win the Democratic primary.

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One “business Democrat” I felt a little bad for was Brenda Harper. 

She once again proved the axiom that business Democrats can’t win Democratic primary (usually).  I mean, she spent money, had good ads, worked her tail off and was soundly defeated by…  a dude who started a human cloning lab in Nitro High School. 

Geez Louise.

And, what’s even more scary? 

Well, wait, no, actually the 30th District injects confidence in me. 

After all, when the chips are down, when are in trouble, when we need leadership, when we need a leader of the highest quality who we can turn to when the 30th distict is in its greatest need, we will turn to our top vote-getter…  Danny Wells.

Holy smokes.

Look, I hate to be mean, but Danny Wells can barely function as a human, let alone lead the 30th District delegation.  I mean, Bonnie Brown and Sharon Spencer are like brain surgeons compared to him.  He is oblivious.

Then you have the dude who…. right… started a human cloning lab by hiring a French Raelian (you know the Raelians, they believe in UFOs) scientist to work in Nitro High School. 

This Skaff guy seems to be the most reasonable of the bunch, although, it’s worrysome how someone pulls both the UMWA AND the CHAMBER endorsement.  My guess is you aren’t really saying the same things in those two interviews.  But, hey, Papa Joe gave his blessing, so I guess that helped.

Then, you have Lucky Seven.  You know her, Nancy (the) Peoples (Republic of) Guthrie who simply has sat down in the number seven slot for every election.  She has been seventh everytime, at least she is consistent.  At least it was heartening after her communistic views were finally unleased on Decision Makers that she didn’t pick up ground and was beat by Skaff and… right, the dude who started the human cloning lab with French Raelians in Nitro High School.

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Holy smokes, my mouth dropped open when I saw the State Chamber dropped a cool $400,000 with CRA here in Charleston for Spike.

Look, I like CRA.  They are a good firm.  If you want to run a multi-million dollar ad campaign for the hottest new product, go with them.  They are creative and good at ad campaigns.

As for politics…  I’m sorry, but they suck.  Period.

I’m sick of seeing them run campaign after campaign of the people I root for, be five times more expensive than any other firm, and trot out ads that could be done for 20% of the cost by, oh..  a couple of high school students working on their TV broadcast project.

And, let me say this, with that pitiful ad they put together in support of Spike, if they didn’t spend $399,000 of the $400,000 on ad placement versus commercial production, then CRA might feel better walking into the Chamber offices with skimasks and sawed-off shotguns to collect that check.

I’m sorry, but if the Chamber spent any more than say $3,000 on that ad for Spike with his photo on the one side and stuff popping up on the other, well, they got ripped off.

Here’s my point.  CRA is like Walmart.  They do a lot of good things really, really well.  If you need a mega-ad campaign, you should use them.  If you want to run ads about the sexiest products out there, you should use them.

But, many candidates, especially in big races, are “told” that they need to go with a BIG PR firm to show they are serious.  And, I’m sure CRA walks in there with 25 people and everyone is impressed.  So, they go out, spend three or four or five times more than they would with anyone else… and have their hat handed to them.

You know why if I want to buy a suit I’ll go to Kelly’s Men Shop?  Why?  Because, that’s what they do.  They live, eat, and breath men’s suits.

As much as I am on the opposite side of the fence, I’d almost rather these guys have used Mike Plante or Larry LaCarte (I know Larry was already working for Spike) or someone who actually does politics.  Candidates should want someone who eats, breathes and sleeps politics - and they will get a better product and a better turnout and spend about 20% of what they will spend with “the big PR firm.”

Or, look, if you want BIG, call Brabender-Cox or some mega-political firm who actually does campaigns for a living.

Sorry, had to vent about that.

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And, lastly, there are going to be some HOT Senate races this year that will be overlooked because of all the other races.  I’ll write more on them as time goes on.  But, it will be headlined by SuperFight II Barnes v. Ross in the 15th district. 

That will be a barnburner.