During the commercial breaks of this summer's television reruns, viewers can look forward to another familiar narrative: Martin O'Malley running for governor.
The Democratic incumbent, who was already the only gubernatorial candidate running a television spot, announced Wednesday that he will put four more TV ads on the air, all focused on the jobs, jobs, jobs message he has repeated since January.
The four new ads are all positive and show a cohesive strategy. O'Malley unveiled the job creation-focused spots one day after announcing a fourth straight month of job increases.
When they go up this week, O'Malley's TV tally will grow to five ads. Plus, he has paid for three radio spots. So far, the onslaught has gone unanswered by Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Ehrlich has no television or radio ads, but he has produced a few online spots.
Political strategists say the asymmetrical ad war suggests that O'Malley has money to burn and is nervous about recent polls showing him running neck-and-neck with his old political foe. The lack of a response from Ehrlich, some say, suggests that he does not have the resources to take on O'Malley's challenge.
"Anybody would see that when one candidate is on the air and the other is silent, there is certainly an advantage of one over the other," said Josh White, O'Malley's 2006 campaign manager. "It is unusual to allow your opponent to be the only one up on air for weeks at a time unless you can't do it."
But longtime Ehrlich fundraiser Dick Hug said people are not paying attention to ads now.
"It is too early to be running ads," Hug said. "It is July. If [O'Malley] wants to spend his money running ads, then God bless him."
But this is a departure from Ehrlich's strategy four years ago. In mid-July 2006, Ehrlich was airing his third television ad and O'Malley was running his fifth.
Asked Wednesday when he might start broadcasting commercials, Ehrlich said, "We will do our own thing." He said last week that he was content to use free news coverage and social media to spread his message.
Ehrlich dismissed O'Malley's new ads, saying it is "counterintuitive" to associate O'Malley with job creation.
Each of the O'Malley spots features a company in a different sector of the economy that has added jobs. In one, Biomarker Strategies CEO Karen Olson says that a tax credit supported by O'Malley helped make her company one of "the top 20 startups" in the country. The Baltimore company is one of 14 Maryland firms this year that used the tax credit designed to draw capital to young firms.
The ad reports that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce rated Maryland No. 2 in the nation for "entrepreneurship and innovation."
Ehrlich's camp thanked O'Malley for highlighting Ehrlich's success. In a release, the campaign noted that the chamber's accolades included the Ehrlich years; the tax credit in question was passed by the General Assembly in 2005, when Ehrlich was governor.
"Bob Ehrlich is glad to hear that legislation he signed into law is a big reason for the company's success," said campaign spokesman Henry Fawell.
Strategists say Ehrlich will likely watch internal polls to see whether the O'Malley spots are nudging the numbers and require a response.
"When the campaign feels that the O'Malley advertising is starting to take hold, I imagine they will have to respond," said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist and former campaign manager for Bob Dole's presidential bid.
But the idea for O'Malley could also be to see what works.
"They have cash to burn," said Michael Cain, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary's College of Maryland. "They are an attempt to put up trial balloons, what might work, what won't work."
http://twitter.com/annielinskey