Les Otten Is On The Air First

Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting Takes A Baseball Bat To The Otten Piñata

Thursday, Mar 11, 2010 – 9:49 AM | No Comment

Everyone has been dancing around the whispers of “Les Otten” and “the failure of American Ski Company”, hesitant to engage, or really hammer him on the subject. Well – maybe not everyone – but the …

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By Matthew Gagnon on Wednesday, December 2, 20097 Comments

Seeking to get the jump on his primary competitors, Les Otten is hitting the airwaves with the first gubernatorial commercial of the year.

I’d link to it or embed it, but the Otten team says they will have it available online “later this week”.

When that happens, I’ll update this post to show you the ad.

In a release this morning, a script of the ad was included:

“I’ve spent the last thirty-seven years creating good jobs and solving problems.

I started with just four employees and grew a company to over twelve-hundred.

I know how to build jobs in Maine.

Maine’s next Governor has to be about creating jobs and more jobs.

We must save the jobs that are here today. We must attract companies to expand here.

As Governor, I’ll be the Job Creator in Chief.

In a Les Otten administration, the first thing that people will think about will be jobs.”

This theme of “Job Creator in Chief” – an obvious play on “Commander in Chief” – has quickly become Otten’s campaign slogan. Much like the other candidates, the economy and jobs are the singular focus of his campaign, but by going up this early with an ad, he is hoping to elbow the other candidates and position himself at the front of the pack on this issue.

It is also an attempt to define himself, before his opponents have a chance to define him. That is incredibly important here, because Otten more than any other Republican candidate will face charges of RINOism and attacks on what his opponents will call his past business “failures” – so if he can get ahead of the game and burn an impression of himself in the minds of the voter, it will be easier to deflect those attacks later on.

Independent Eliot Cutler is also planning to go up with some ads soon – though at this point I do not know precisely when. My guess would be early January after the holidays. I would also suspect Bruce Poliquin, who has the ability to self fund, will likely be throwing up his face on television soon in an attempt to trump Otten early and also get a leg up on the competition, who at this point are all still fundraising and building their campaign apparatuses.

But, for Les Otten, this was a necessary, and strategically solid move.

UPDATE: Here it is…

And honestly, after watching that, I can’t help but think of this:

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7 Comments »

Mike said:

Actually, the first thing people will think about is Obama. Then maybe jobs.

Seriously, how many times can you say one word?

- 2 December 2009 at 1:09 PM

Lauren said:

It worries me that many of the conservative candidates are promising to create jobs. I tend to agree with Mayor LePage…”the only job a Governor can create is a government one.” I think we need to be focusing on the business climate of the state, and making it business friendly… and then jobs will follow.

- 2 December 2009 at 5:18 PM

john j bouchard said:

Bruce Poliquin has already been on the air waves
during the Tabor Debate and got alot of good exposure,
so Mr. Otten is not the first on the air!

- 2 December 2009 at 9:44 PM

Hutch said:

Anybody can stand in front of a TV camera and say they will create jobs as Otten recently did, good for him. The trouble is he does not say how he will do it. The only candidate I have heard that makes any sense is Bruce Poliquin. He states that in order to create jobs in Maine you have to first have fical responsibility, then remove the tremendous burdens of over regulation and taxation on our businesses only then will they begin to look at Maine as a great place to open shop.

- 4 December 2009 at 3:06 PM

john j bouchard said:

Hutch- You could have not said it any better!

- 4 December 2009 at 7:59 PM

Kendra said:

Jobs, jobs, jobs. The word sounds good, but if the last year has shown people across this state and nation anything, it’s that government is not the source of jobs. Government cannot create jobs…except government jobs (i.e., bureaucracy). What government should, no MUST do, is create an economic environment that makes the private sector feel confident enough to expand and hire. Government must focus on fiscal responsibility and lower taxes and then get out of the way. Ott’s commercials sound like the same old platitudes we’ve heard in the past, especially when I read an article on tax reform and notice that candidates like Bruce Poliquin and Paul LePage come out strongly against LD 1495 while Ott says he is still “reading the bill and waiting…” Give me a break. Waiting for what? I’ve listened to Mr. Poliquin speak out for Question 4. I met Bruce Poliquin at the Lobster Festival this summer and asked him about his approach to business. He never once said he would be creating jobs or standing for jobs. He said it all starts with changing Augusta’s economic attitudes. Music to my ears. The private sector will do its job if Augusta does its.

- 5 December 2009 at 8:30 AM

On Caucuses And Straw Polls | Pine Tree Politics said:

[...] for fun and don’t exactly tell you who the front runners are, but for a candidate who was first on the air, second on the air, and dumped more than a half million dollars of his own money into the race, you [...]

- 9 February 2010 at 4:07 PM