WITH THE primary election to fill Seator Ted Kennedy’s seat just four weeks from today, all four Democratic candidates are on television and the Web. Since no one in Boston admits to watching TV, allow me to fill you in.
No perspiration, no inspiration. Attorney General Martha Coakley got a jump on the field with an online video that announced her intention to run. It had the polish of a Skype transmission; she inexplicably looked up and off camera.
Coakley bought $317,000 in TV advertising last week. It went for a testimonial spot about a woman who called Coakley’s office because her health insurance company denied a claim. The office helped her and closed the company. A nice story but routine political advertising. Frontrunner Coakley could put this election away if she could show that she sweats and that she can inspire.
The first stone. An online video by Women for Coakley mocks Congressman Michael Capuano for voting “present’’ on a number of bills. If a TV ad war breaks out between Capuano and Coakley, this will be where it started.
The audacity of wealth. Venture capitalist Steven Pagliuca has already spent $3.6 million on TV time. Trying to buy an election could turn off union members, feminists, liberal activists, and party regulars who have labored long and hard for the Democratic Party and will dominate turnout in the primary.
After some cloying early commercials, his recent ones are merely contrived. Rejecting special interest money is a hollow claim for a mega-millionaire who doesn’t need anybody’s money. And posing as a populist who’ll put Wall Street gougers in jail makes it seem like he’s running for prosecutor; his outrage is at odds with his career.
Déjà vu all over again. Recently, Pags told the Associated Press that the commercials that Kennedy ran against Mitt Romney in 1994 were “inaccurate’’ and vowed to “fight tooth and nail’’ if he is similarly attacked. The commercials featured workers from an Indiana paper company who lost their jobs when Romney and Pagliuca, as controlling investors from Bain Capital, dumped all 350 of them. So much for being the jobs candidate. Bain, which put $5 million into the company, took out $100 million.
Ironically, the “inaccurate’’ commercials were made by Pagliuca’s own media consultant who had worked for Kennedy against Romney. Pags’s campaign said they were lucky to have him. Maybe they meant he can’t do commercials attacking Pags.
Insider with earmarks. Congressman Capuano will soon hit $1 million in TV spending. An admitted insider, he says in a new TV spot that health care, research, and biotech will help Massachusetts get out of the recession faster and, in a non sequitur, that he got record federal funding for transportation projects. Actually, many in the state’s congressional delegation could make that claim, thanks to the $14 billion Big Dig.
In your face. Capuano has declared that his career in Congress “mirrors’’ that of Kennedy. He was 11 when Kennedy went to the Senate so that’s some mirror he’s using. When he gets hot -- which is often -- the top buttons on his shirt look like they’re about to explode. That mirrors his anger; but with voters, some like it hot.
The red jacket. Newcomer Alan Khazei got better press in Newsweek and the
Khazei’s TV campaign ($130,000 buy) began with a commercial about City Year. It’s ordinary looking with corny music and the candidate on camera, plus scenes of young corps members working in their red jackets. Khazei worked with Kennedy to save and expand AmeriCorps, which was patterned after City Year. You won’t remember much about Khazei’s spot except Kennedy in that red City Year jacket.
Free advice: Capuano needs to lower his emotional temperature; Coakley needs to raise hers. Khazei needs to be a protest candidate to end the Afghanistan war. Pags needs a red jacket.
Dan Payne is a Boston-area media consultant who has created TV commercials for Senator John F. Kerry and Representative Barney Frank and Democrats around the country. 
