Paul’s first TV ad highlights work as physician

By Roger Alford – The Associated Press

FRANKFORT — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul is back in scrubs for his first TV ad of the fall campaign, declaring: “I’m a physician, not a career politician.”

Paul, a Bowling Green eye surgeon, trounced his GOP opponents in Kentucky’s May primary by running as a political outsider, an approach he is carrying over into the general election campaign against Democrat Jack Conway.

The 30-second ad scheduled to begin airing statewide on Wednesday shows Paul intermittently in scrubs and a white physician’s coat with the voice of a female narrator declaring that he always puts patients first.

“When Medicare closed its door to patients needing care, Rand Paul opened his,” the narrator says. “Rand founded the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic to provide for those in need. Awarded for his service, Rand always puts patients first. That’s why he opposes the Obama-Pelosi health care scheme, which puts Washington bureaucrats in charge, destroying the doctor-patient relationship.”

Campaign manager Jesse Benton called the ad buy “substantial” but declined to give a dollar figure. The Conway campaign estimated it at about $250,000.

Both campaigns are now running TV spots. Conway, Kentucky’s attorney general, went up with his first ad in late August, touting his efforts to crack down on Internet child pornography, elder abuse and the illegal prescription drug trade in a $150,000 buy.

Three sheriffs and a sheriff-elect appear in the ad boasting of Conway’s record as Kentucky’s top law enforcement officer.

University of Kentucky political scientist Stephen Voss said Paul’s outsider status could serve him well.

“Voters are very suspicious of politicians, and Republicans are taking advantage of it nationwide by running corporate executives and other nonstandard politicians,” Voss said.

Voss said Paul’s background as a physician will likely be more palatable than that of business executives who are running in some other states.

“Doctors are not sources of suspicion right now,” Voss said. “As an outsider from the medical field, Paul doesn’t suffer from the same stigma as these other outsider candidates do.”

Campaigns in Kentucky typically begin ramping up their TV advertising in early September. Already, a conservative political group has been airing two TV ads in several Kentucky cities attacking Conway for supporting “ObamaCare.”

Filed Under: Democratic Party • Elections • Federal Government • Jack Conway • Rand Paul • US Senate Race