Les Otten Is On The Air First

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: