As our own Philip Rucker first reported last week, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) is the latest senator to be confronted by questions about just how much she actually lives in her home state.
Where Landrieu differs from others who have faced similar questions, though, is that she has routinely worked on issues important to the District of Columbia. Hence, there are a whole bunch of news clips talking about her focus on D.C. -- which isn't exactly helpful for her very difficult reelection race.
American Crossroads is up with a damning new web ad splicing together many of these clips. It ends with a particularly devastating quote from embattled/outgoing D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray (D), who appears to describe Landrieu as "the senator representing the District of Columbia until we become the 51st state of the United States..."
YouTube took it down because of a copyright claim by Fox News, but it is still up at the Post:
Maybe now is a good time to repeat some of the relevant conclusions from George Washington University political scientist John Sides’ classic 2012 round-up of what we do and don’t know about political advertising, whichappeared in two parts in the New York Times 538 data-based blog back prior to the 2012 vote:
1. Campaign ads matter more when candidates are unfamiliar. (That doesn’t hold in this case, does it?)
2. Campaign ads work when you can outspend the other person. (That may or may not occur in Louisiana this fall.)
3. Campaign ads matter, but only for a brief time. Their effect decays within days.
4, Negative ads work, or they don’t work. Nobody really knows. Go figure.
