Ethan's New Ads Work! - But...

The newest Ethan Berkowitz ads are great.!

His own ads have been fairly good, since they debuted, back during the last weeks of the Democratic Party primary season. Earlier DCCC ads, against Don Young were abysmally bad. But they've been replaced with far better ones in the past few days.

Ivan Moore warned today that even though Berkowitz is now leading Young by about nine points, Young was also seriously behind John Devins in 1990 and 1992 at this point, and won.

I've warned the Berkowitz campaign about a couple of things recently, that might serve to emphasize Ivan Moore's concerns.

One dates back to 1992. Young was behind former Valdez mayor John Devins, his Democratic opponent, by about five or six points, two weeks before election. Young got on the phone with then-present Valdez mayor John Harris, now Alaska House majority leader. Young got Harris to do his bidding.

A film crew showed up in Valdez. Harris had public works employees spread trash in several scenic places around town. The crew filmed and filmed. They flew the footage to a studio. Last-week ads came out, blaming Devins for the blight. Young won. Narrowly.

The other item, is that I've been told that Young is holding back on some powerfully slimy ads he's having produced, counting on a last-minute set of media buys, with a similarly false meme attached. I've shared what that message will be with the Berkowitz campaign, but can't write about it yet.

But I am very glad that Ethan's new ads are strikingly genuine, and appear to be very effective.