War garb seems to be the appropriate costume this year for several candidates seeking Senate seats in the midterm elections, and the motif is neither red nor blue, but rather, Desert Storm khaki camouflage or olive drab.
The Wall Street Journal reports that at least five contenders for top Senate seats this year have released video campaign ads featuring them wearing military fatigues as a means of portraying themselves as patriotic, geared up and ready to go to war with terrorists.
Republican Scott Brown, a former Massachusetts senator running against incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, displayed his fatigue uniform in a campaign ad posted on YouTube, in which he says:
"Anyone who turns on the TV these days knows we face challenges to our way of life. Radical Islamic terrorists are threatening to cause the collapse of our country. President [Barack] Obama and Sen. Shaheen seem confused about the nature of the threat."
Brown, a retired Army colonel, says in the ad, "Not me, I want to secure the border, keep out the people who would do us harm, and restore America's leadership in the world."
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Republican Joni Ernst, in her run against Democrat Bruce Braley to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin in Iowa, is both an Iowa Senate member and a lieutenant colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard, and she also dons battle dress uniform in her television
campaign commercial.
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Jon Soltz, Iraq veteran and chairman of Votevets.org, told the Journal that wearing a military uniform in campaign ads "makes you look less political. It makes you look like a public servant."
Republican Tom Cotton, a decorated former airborne Army captain with tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, is vying against incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor in Arkansas, and brings in his former basic training drill sergeant in a campaign ad called, "At Ease."
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Dan Sullivan, a Republican, battling incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Begich in Alaska, is commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and a serving U.S. Marine Reserve lieutenant colonel. His uniformed campaign ad features retired Air Force Gen. Joe Ralston endorsing Sullivan while several photographs of Sullivan in military uniform flash on the screen.
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The uniformed parade isn't limited to Republicans. Also posting a uniformed video is Democratic Rep. Gary Peters of Michigan, noting his Navy Reserve background. He is running against Republican Terri Lynn Land for the seat vacated by Democratic Sen. Carl Levin.
Another military-themed video was posted by Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a former Army major who is facing Republican Mark Zaccaria.
All of the ads contain notices that they do not imply endorsement by the Department of Defense or the U.S. military.
Elizabeth Wilner, of Kantar Media Ad Intelligence, told the Journal that posing in military uniforms for campaign ads in a time of increased terrorist threats "may mean something new for the viewers and voters, because they are feeling less safe today than they were a few weeks ago,"
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