by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
While Jacksonville’s mayoral race continues to tighten, so do individual campaigns as the candidates start taking their messages to the airwaves. Republican candidate John Peyton will be the first to air a television spot today.
“What we really want to do with our first spot,” said Peyton campaign manager Margaret Akra Bulin,” is let the people know who John is and what he can do for them.”
Peyton’s initial 60-second commercial is expected to run for approximately two weeks before an issue-based follow up drops.
Republican candidate Mike Weinstein said that he will produce and release his own television spot within the next 10 days.
“When it airs,” said Weinstein, “I just want the people to understand everything that I have done for the city. It will focus on who I am and that with me, what you see is what you get.”
Around that time, said Dennis Hill from Ginger Soud’s political headquarters, spots bearing her likeness will also debut.
“We should have something out by mid-March,” said Hill. “We have some ad people working on it right now and we’ll be addressing the universal issues of this campaign.”
While it is expected that the other candidates will follow suit along a similar time frame, representatives for Tommy Hazouri and Matt Carlucci were not willing to release specific dates, saying it would be counter-productive to their “political strategy.”
“While we do have a campaign strategy devised,” said Carlucci spokesperson John Daigle, “we aren’t planning to make it public knowledge. I can assure you, however, that we will be producing television spots and direct mail pieces.”
Currently, Carlucci’s camp has not yet purchased any air time.
Mark Kohl, a director and president of Kohl-Lindsey Entertainment, has overseen the production of several political spots around the country, including gubernatorial and congressional campaigns. He said that, while producing political commercials can be a unique experience, it is not unlike developing an ad for any other product.
“It’s really an organic process,” said Kohl. “They have their ideas for how they want to be portrayed and we try to move in that direction. It’s really about following a combination, a formula.”
Kohl said political analysts typically work to develop strategies for the individual candidates before approaching a production company. Budgets can be as varied as the candidates themselves.
“Budgets vary. We try to shoot the spots documentary style so that it doesn’t come across totally manufactured,” said Kohl. “As the election date approaches, that’s when you may see spots that feature more ‘mudslinging.’ ”
While not revealing any names, Kohl admitted that several mayoral candidates have approached him about producing commercials for their campaigns.
In addition to production costs, individuals opting to purchase television air time will work off of what is called a political rate card. Essentially, the rate card guarantees that the candidates will have access to the lowest unit of cost in a given block of time.
Calls to Sheriff Nat Glover seeking comment were not returned.