Rep. Rick Berg (R-N.D.) and his advisers most likely expected the week-old “Again” ad to conjure Rockwellian nostalgia for neighborly intimacy and small-town straight talk.
How quaint.
Instead, the Republican challenging Democrat Heidi Heitkamp for the seat being vacated by soon-to-be-chartless budget wonk Sen. Kent Conrad (D) has been ridiculed and berated by Web surfers who found the campaign spot laughable.
Team Berg has since disabled the comments section of the corresponding YouTube page — but not before we grabbed the choicest critiques.
One played the gender card:
(YouTube comments)
Others eviscerated the “Mean Girls”-like chatter:
(YouTube comments)
Some took offense to Berg’s regional pandering:
(YouTube comments)
While a few chose to bask in the anticipated backlash:
(YouTube comments)
A Berg for Senate aide declined to comment on the ad in question, stating only that North Dakota voters “are increasingly turned off” by personal attacks leveled against Berg by “Heidi, [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [D-Nev.] and their liberal allies.”
Heard on the Hill is Roll Call's Capitol Hill gossip blog.
Warren Rojas is a Heard on the Hill columnist for Roll Call, having previously worked as the founding dining editor for Northern Virginia Magazine and also as a tax reporter for Tax Notes. @WARojas
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