Kerry ads 'reintroduce' candidate to undecideds

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Sen. John Kerry has begun a new $25 million TV-ad campaign that focuses on his Vietnam War experiences and a political career that most voters know very little about, Democratic strategists said yesterday.

Beset by declining polls in key battleground states and partywide fears that President Bush's $60 million ad campaign has begun to define Mr. Kerry in voters' minds as weak on national defense, the Massachusetts Democrat seeks to "reintroduce" himself to voters who remain undecided or say they could change their minds in the next six months.

"Why aren't voters jumping on his bandwagon? Because they don't know who he is and they don't know what he stands for," said Michigan-based Democratic pollster Ed Sarpolus.

Recent polls and surveys of small groups of undecided voters in key cities reinforce this view. At the same time, Democratic campaign strategists have been complaining that Mr. Kerry is all attack and has few fresh solutions, especially on what to do in Iraq and the war on terrorism.

"Kerry needs to become part of the solution before he identifies problems. That's why he's got to reintroduce himself. He has no choice. He needs to offset the erosion caused by Bush, whose ads have been effective. He needs to start telling his story," Mr. Sarpolus said.

Kerry campaign officials say the senator has made a strategic decision to "get back to basics" and that the largely biographical ads are an attempt to tell the country who he is and where he came from to boost his credibility with voters.

Kerry strategists hope that his war record will help dispel or blunt the Bush campaign's attacks against his long voting record for cuts in defense and intelligence spending -- issues that the Bush campaign has been flogging for weeks in battleground states such as Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The Bush ads have "helped to shape people's opinions of [Mr. Kerry]," said Dan Trevas, chief spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party.

One of the two new 60-second Kerry campaign ads features two Vietnam veterans, with heavy emphasis on Mr. Kerry's Vietnam exploits for which he received the Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Heart medals.

In one ad, former Green Beret Jim Rasmussen, whom Mr. Kerry rescued, says, "When he pulled me out of the river, he risked his life to save mine."

The ads are a tacit acknowledgement that, despite a 19-year Senate career, Mr. Kerry has not become a nationally known figure in his party.

"I don't think it should come as a surprise that he was not a very well-known senator ... ," said Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network and a veteran of past Democratic presidential campaigns. "He's up against a president who is well-known, and Kerry is not very well-defined in the campaign."

Bush campaign officials ridiculed the Kerry ads yesterday, saying that they pointedly say little if anything about his Senate career.

"The new ads say nothing about his record as a senator and about keeping America safe. That's a key question in this election, and these ads do not address that," says Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman.

"After 19 years in the Senate, the two things he highlights [in the ads] is a vote for the largest tax increase in history and a vote for Ted Kennedy's health care legislation. That is very telling," said Matthew Dowd, the Bush campaign's pollster.

But Democratic strategists, who praised the new Kerry ads, expressed optimism about where Mr. Kerry is at this point in the campaign.

"Here we have a guy very few people know running against a guy who has more money than God, but who is not ahead in this race," Mr. Rosenberg said.

"But we've got six months to go, a lifetime in politics. In 1992, Bill Clinton was in third place behind Ross Perot in late June, yet he went on to win the election. A lot of voters won't kick in until late September. These ads are aimed at those voters," he said.