Grading TV commercials in Ohio’s hotly contested US Senate race

The TV commercials are coming hot and heavy now as Ohio’s U.S. Senate campaigns head into the stretch drive for the May 3 primaries in one of the nation’s most closely watched races.

What remains to be seen is which ads are swaying voters. The Republican primary polls have usually shown about a quarter of GOP voters as undecided, so the well-executed ad could be decisive.

Winning ads have a clear message and connect emotionally. Here’s how I grade the recent crop, based on six decades of seeing campaign commercials – the first one I remember, called “Daisy,” is still best for those qualities. It clearly got across the idea that if you didn’t vote for President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, innocent little girls would perish in a nuclear war.

That was an A+. Here are a couple of recent A’s:

Mike Gibbons’ rebuttal to claims by Josh Mandel and ads supporting the former state treasurer that Gibbons, an entrepreneur, referred to Mandel’s Marine Corps service as not “real work.”

That was a misquote of Gibbons, whose commercial counters with Marine Sgt. Jeremy Gons saying Mandel has been lying even as Gibbons’ son, a Navy pilot, was deployed. Mandel “exploits military service to score dishonest political points,” Gons says.

Mandel, who served two tours of duty in Iraq, was clearly hoping to benefit the way John Glenn did in the 1974 Democratic primary with a stirring “Gold Star Mother” response to then-Sen. Howard Metzenbaum’s belittling of Glenn’s Marine and astronaut career. But Mandel dishonestly overplayed his hand, and Gibbons returned fire.

Also an A: Democrat Morgan Harper’s “My Ohio Story” biographical commercial. It’s also an excellent American story, recounting her rise from adoption out of foster care to scholarships to top universities and working in consumer protection in the Barack Obama administration.

She is clear on her positions: “Medicare for All,” $15 minimum wage, pro women’s choice on abortion.

Democratic front-runner Tim Ryan has large advantages in name recognition and funding, though.

Earning a B: Matt Dolan on how a “War on Energy” is hurting Ohioans from the gas pumps to the grocery shelves. The Cleveland-area state senator has been emphasizing his superior legislative experience in the Republican field while criticizing President Joe Biden instead of praising Donald Trump. It’s a distinctive lane in the race, but so far has been a slow lane.

Here are a couple of C’s: Tim Ryan on China taking Ohio jobs. It’s some overkill, with all the repeated “Chinas,” to the extent that some Asian Americans have complained. And it’s not clear what the veteran Democratic congressman plans to do differently about it in Washington. He does display some of the down-to-earth populism of Sherrod Brown, the Democratic senator he’d like to join in the upper chamber.