Danny Tarkanian may be campaigning against Harry Reid, but he’s clearly trying to run with the memory of Ronald Reagan:
This ad has shown up all over the blogosphere (I saw it on HuffPo and Burnt Orange Report today, for instance — neither of them remotely a Republican site — and another version has also run on Epolitics.com itself), and it links back to a landing page that features video from a Ronald Reagan trip to Nevada to rally the faithful against Reid back in 1986:
Wow, talk about a piece designed to bring a tear to the eyes of conservatives yearning for a return to the storied days of yore, when leaders were leaders and Republicans stood for all that was right in the world…or so it seems through the rose-colored glasses of GOP political memory. Besides the video, with its tight editing and dramatic score, Tarkanian’s site does a good job on the conversion front as well, giving people plenty of opportunities to give money, join the campaign email list or follow it through the usual social media channels.
With the election a little more than nine months away, Tarkanian’s got his eye on the long game, building his supporter list with plenty of time to get people working and to hit them up repeatedly for cash. And by advertising on national sites, he clearly hopes to capitalize on the same out-of-state support that helped Scott Brown win in Massachusetts — what Republican WOULDN’T want to knock off a Democratic Senate Majority Leader? Somebody get Reid a copy of Winning in 2010, stat — if he’s not just as aggressive at building his base with time to use it, he might be looking for a new line of work come November.
– cpd