Hot off the press!http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/01/AR2010110102898.html?hpid=topnewsodonnell%20ad%20forgottenO'Donnell faces obstacles in effort to air 30-minute TV ad in Delaware
By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 1, 2010; 2:41 PM
Christine O'Donnell is taking a page from the playbook of Barack Obama. The Republican Senate candidate has produced a 30-minute television advertisement in the form of a documentary chronicling her connection with the people of Delaware.
But unlike Obama's ad at the end of the 2008 race, the tea party insurgent's campaign has run into obstacles getting it in front of voters before Election Day. The campaign did not purchase advance time on networks in the Philadelphia or Delaware markets, said a source close to the O'Donnell campaign, and the networks did not have time available to air the ad on such short notice.
So O'Donnell turned to a public access television station, Delaware Channel 28. She told supporters at a Tea Party Express rally on Sunday in Wilmington to watch that night at 11:30. "Tell everyone to tune in," she said at the rally.
"1 minute until the premiere of our 30 minute feature. Tune in to meet all the heart warming people I've met on the campaign trail. Ch. 28," O'Donnell tweeted Sunday night.
But the ad never aired.
A few minutes later, O'Donnell tweeted: "Okay... this is NOT our show! Must be a programming mix up. We will get back to you..."
The source, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive campaign operations, said the station "forgot to air it."
Then on Monday morning, O'Donnell's campaign issued a press release saying the ad would air on Channel 28 at 10 a.m. The candidate tweeted: "The Inspiring TV show about Delawareans will air at 10 aam and 3 pm today on Channel 28. Please watch this before you vote."
And again, it did not air.
"This isn't our show either! We are told channel 28 'forgot' to air it...both times... even though we paid for the time slot last week," O'Donnell tweeted shortly after 10 a.m.
Tim Qualls, executive producer at Channel 28, said in an interview the ad did not air because O'Donnell's campaign did not bring a tape to the production studio by the agreed upon deadline. She reserved the time on Thursday, for $2,500, and agreed to bring a tape by Friday at 5 p.m., Qualls said.
"I did not receive a tape until Sunday night at one of my employees' houses," Qualls said. "It has nothing to do with us refusing to air it. I just didn't get the tape by my deadline."
Qualls added: "It was all their people's fault."
He said he is a Republican and had planned to vote for O'Donnell, but the tape situation changed his mind. "She's lost my vote," Qualls said.
O'Donnell spokesman Doug Sachtleben said he was not sure why the ad did not air Sunday night. "I don't know if it was something on the cable channel's side," he said in an interview.
Sachtleben said the ad is scheduled to air on Channel 28 twice each on Monday and Tuesday, at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and that the campaign is negotiating on Monday for an airing on WBOC-TV, the Fox affiliate in the Delmarva Peninsula.
The campaign's plan Tuesday "is to go station to station with a DVD in hand begging anyone to run it," said the source.
O'Donnell has run behind her Democratic opponent, Chris Coons, in every recent public poll. The ad, titled "We the People of the First State," is a last-ditch effort to win over more support before Tuesday's election with a closing argument that O'Donnell, unlike Coons, connects with people of Delaware.
But Sachtleben said the campaign is unlikely to air the ad in the Philadelphia market, which covers the more densely populated northern parts of Delaware.
In an interesting twist, the ad guru who has produced O'Donnell's television ads, Fred Davis, was not involved in producing the 30-minute video. Sachtleben said it was produced by Screaming Dime Productions, a firm from California.
It is billed as a 30-minute advertisement, but the video is 24 minutes.
The ad, narrated by O'Donnell, opens with sweeping shots of Delaware's beaches, natural beauty and small-town charm. Then it quickly segues to footage of shuttered storefronts and "For Lease" signs.
"This video takes viewers past the filters of the mainstream media and gives a powerful look at a candidate who understands the struggles and opportunities that Delaware families are facing," Sachtleben said in a statement.
The question for O'Donnell is whether enough voters will tune in.
