Ron Barber a bulldog?
After the midday filming of this week's KUAT debate, but before it hit TV screens, the Barber campaign sent out "breaking news" video in which campaign manager Jennifer Cox applauded Barber's performance in holding Jesse Kelly accountable for his "extreme views" on Social Security, Medicare and the minimum wage.
"Ron was a bulldog," Cox says. "He made sure that the audience knew about what Jesse said in the past."
Barber is known in the community as a kind and thoughtful man, so this may have been the first time he has been called a "bulldog."
Not that he wasn't ferocious in the debate.
He went after Kelly throughout the forum, even delivering a school-marm-ish lecture of sorts to Kelly, who is 36 years younger than Barber, about needing to tell the truth and stop making things up.
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But not everyone was buying the new Bulldog Barber moniker.
Daniel Scarpinato, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, tweeted this in response to Cox's video: "Nice try. More like lapdog for Pelosi and Obama."
Money, money, money
The video sent out by Cox was part of a fundraising push by the Democrats this week.
Mark Kelly, Gabrielle Giffords' husband, sent an email Wednesday reminding supporters that in "close races like these, we can't set the record straight without your grassroots support." He asks supporters to help raise $100,000 for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
"Ron has been there for us. When Gabby made her first run for Congress, Ron got behind her 100 percent right from the beginning. Now, we need your support behind Democrats like Ron," the email says.
James Carville also sent an email asking for support for Barber, saying he's never seen a "full-fledged cover-up like what Kelly is trying to pull on voters.
"Tell Jesse that pulling all the wool in the world over our eyes won't make us forget all of the times we heard him talk about privatizing Social Security and Medicare," he wrote.
The Congressional District 8 special election has become a big-money race, as predicted.
With just three weeks until the June 12 election, TV ads from both sides are coming out at a furious pace. Both Barber and Kelly aired new ads this week.
There has been more than $1.5 million spent on TV ads by the national organizations, and that doesn't include the ad buys from each campaign.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has committed to at least $600,000 in TV ad buys, and the Citizens United Pac, a conservative organization that is backing Kelly, has spent $100,000 to put a pro-Kelly ad on the air.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic House Majority Pac have spent at least $800,000 combined.
'Grandpa Hank'
Who knew Jesse Kelly, who at 30, would be the second-youngest member of the House if elected, would need to reach back a couple of generations to get elected?
Under constant attack about his past comments about wanting to privatize and phase out Social Security and Medicare, Kelly has spent considerable time this campaign trying to convince voters he's committed to preserving the two benefit programs vital to seniors.
He's enlisted his grandfather, Hank Allgyer, a U.S. Air Force veteran, to help his cause. 'Grandpa Hank' has now appeared in two different TV ads.
In the first, Hank grabs Kelly's arm while seated at a kitchen table and says, "Don't let Ron Barber cut my benefits, Jesse. I've earned them."
"Don't worry, Grandpa, I won't," Kelly says.
An email sent Wednesday to announce the new ad included the title, "Grandpa Hank returns to set the record straight."
"Jesse Kelly won't cut Social Security," says Hank in the second ad, seated behind a computer screen. "I should know, he's my grandson."
