This Kelly Ayotte ad looks pretty similar to one from a Democratic senator 4 years ago
Politics is a lot like baseball, at least according to the near-endless metaphors.And despite their political differences, Sens. Kelly Ayotte and Heidi Heitkamp appear to agree the same can be said for softball. So much so, in fact, that Ayotte’s newest campaign ad looks very similar to an ad that Heitkamp, a Democratic senator from North Dakota, ran in 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVr9cirHglk&feature=youtu.be
“When I decided to run for Senate, I knew they’d try to hit me with all sorts of stuff,” Heitkamp said in the ad, stepping into a batting cage and hitting a number of pitches in a symbolic act of fending off attacks from billionaires.
Fast-forward four years to Ayotte’s ad released Sunday, in which the Republican senator “take[s] the plate for New Hampshire” and strikes a very similar tone (as well as softballs).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPA3m2tcEOI
“I’m up against a political machine that plays dirty, throwing millions in false, negative ads,” says Ayotte. After ducking a ball, the New Hampshire senator sprays a succession of pitches into the outfield of a softball park.
Both ads use the softball premise to symbolize the candidates to stand up against negative attacks from special interests. Heitkamp says she’ll protect Medicare and domestic jobs, while Ayotte touts her support for jobs, Social Security, Medicare, and affordable college.
The Ayotte campaign did not immediately respond for comment of the ads’ similarities.
Ayotte and Heitkamp played together in the 2013 Congressional Women’s Softball Game, in which a team of congresswomen take on a team of political reporters. Ayotte has participated in the game every year since 2011.
According to a box score of that 2013 game, Heitkamp went 1-2 and struck out once, while Ayotte went 0-3 with 1 RBI.
The Members of Congress team lost 11-8 to the all-women press team that year.
For Ayotte’s sake, hopefully she can make better contact against the “political machine” than she did against incoming Politico editor Carrie Budoff Brown, the 2013 press team pitcher.
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