News Media Commentary: Gilmore Not Airing TV Ad in NOVA

According to this article written by Tim Craig, Republican U.S. Senate candidate James S. Gilmore III is airing his first televised campaign commercial. Curiously enough, though the commercial is airing in Richmond and “other TV markets downstate” but not in Northern Virginia. Interesting. I wonder what good that will do Gilmore.

I mean, I guess it makes sense. Northern Virginia is very pro-Mark Warner, so it might just be a waste of money. However, I still think it’s a shame to not air the commercial there- NOVA has voted Republican in a few of the last few local elections (I’m thinking particularly Va. Sen. Ken Cuccinelli winning a tight race in Fairfax last year) and I don’t necessarily think he should give it up completely. It’s a very powerful area politically.

It’s expected that the ad’s airtime cost the Virginia Republican Party $80,000. According to the article, Warner ran two TV ads during June and July, but hasn’t had them on the air since early August.

This'll be a fun race to watch- two former governors against each other. And some photogenic ones too. I'd post pictures, but I recently found out in my Journalism Law class that that might not be the best idea. Although, hey, let's look on Flickr and see if I can find something under Creative Commons license I can use...

Hey whadya know? There's a Flickr account for Mark Warner full of photos from his campaign. This was uploaded Sept. 3 from a Labor Day event- I'm not certain who the girl is. Fun picture though- yay not getting sued!

Okay this one was a little harder to find. It's Jim Gilmore's portrait at the Virginia State Capitol- also under Creative Commons- taken by stgermh.


Overall, a very good basic news story- no frills, not even a picture online. I believe Tim Craig is the standard Post writer for stories out of Richmond. I wonder what it's like reporting on location like that. Hm.