Happy Monday! If you’ve watched much television recently, you’ve seen two new campaign ads from the major U.S. House candidates, Democrat John Lewis and Republican Ryan Zinke. Today I take a look at the two ads for Montana’s open U.S. House seat.

By the way, Roll Call has published an interesting story about the best television shows to air political advertisements. You can read it HERE.

Zinke “Two Lives, Two Choices, Two Candidates” ad:

I’ll admit when I first starting hearing the latest ad from Ryan Zinke, my initial thought was (as I rolled my eyes), “Please, not another Navy SEAL ad.” It’s not that I don’t respect the career of Zinke, but I already know he was a Navy SEAL. From what I am hearing from other folks, they are looking for more about Zinke, too.

It was not long into the new ad before I saw what Zinke was doing. The 30-second ad attempts to contrast Zinke’s career with that of his opponent John Lewis. For example the ad says, “1988 Ryan Zinke is assigned platoon commander SEAL Team One. John Lewis enters fifth grade.” The ad then talks about in 1996 when Zinke was assigned as senior ground force commander SEAL Team Six and says that John Lewis graduates from high school. The ad closes with “Two Montanans. Two Lives. One Ready to Lead in Congress.”

I gave Zinke’s first ad called, “The Right Conservative for Montana” ad eight out of 10 (8/10), but that ad has soured some because I have seen it so many times. This one is a little better as it contrasts the lives of the two candidates. I don’t know if Zinke has another ad planned before Election Day, but he should try something else.

I give the new Zinke campaign ad “Two Lives, Two Choices, Two Candidates” a nine out of 10 (9/10).  You can watch it HERE.

Lewis “Likes” ad:

The 30-second ad shows a woman named “Donna Jean” from Helena, Montana. In the ad, the Lewis campaign claims “Zinke’s running for Congress on a plan to cut Donna Jean’s Medicare” because “Zinke just likes the corporations and billionaires a whole lot” and “They’re trying to buy him a seat in Congress. And he wants to give them another big tax break in return.”

The ad closes with “Ryan Zinke is for himself. Not Montana.”

It’s a time-tested method all across the fruited plains for Democrats to claim that Republicans want to cut Medicare and/or Social Security. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not.

In the press release accompanying the ad, it was nice to see the Lewis campaign link to the “sources.”

Lewis’ last ad called “Montana Roots” was pretty good, and I gave it an eight out of 10 (8/10). Unfortunately, I don’t like the “Likes” ad as well.

I give the new Lewis campaign ad “Likes” a seven out of 10 (7/10).  You can watch it HERE

Do you agree or disagree? The comment section is open!

## END ##