THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 14, 1994 TAG: 9410140557
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
A month away from the election, Jim Chapman and Rep. Owen B. Pickett have taken their congressional campaign from backyard barbecues and civic-league luncheons to the more expensive domain of television.
A pig-pickin' may be good for pressing the flesh and hearing the whims and wishes of the voters, but TV is where images are burnished, where the lion's share of the campaign funds disappear.
Chapman, the Republican challenger for the 2nd District congressional seat, went on the air a week ago, alternating a pair of ads in 11 slots a day. Pickett's campaign began its ads Monday night, alternating two commercials in about 14 time slots a day.
Pickett's television ads are remarkably similar to those he used in 1992, when he won his fourth term by pulling 55 percent of the vote to Chapman's 45 percent. The two strongest themes in each ad campaign were Pickett's service to the district and his support of the Navy. The new twist for 1994 is a group of constituents who praise the congressman for fighting to keep the government from closing Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.
Chapman's newest ads differ markedly from his 1992 campaign in tone and content. His '92 spots were tough-edged and accusatory in their attempts to portray Pickett as a fat-cat spendthrift who was soft on crime and hard on his constituents' pocketbooks.
The new commercials still paint Chapman as an aggressively conservative alternative to Pickett, the incumbent Democrat. But Chapman seems more mature and less shrill in his latest campaign spots.
``Jim is just a lot better candidate than he was two years ago,'' said Mike McElwain, Chapman's campaign manager. ``He's a lot more relaxed, more confident, than he was in 1992.''
One Chapman spot, titled ``My Family,'' is a dewy 30 seconds of scenes of the candidate enjoying time with his wife and two young daughters. While such ads are something of a political cliche, this one might offset the image of combativeness that Chapman built in his '92 race and his Republican primary campaign in the spring.
The second ad, titled simply ``Jim,'' hits at Pickett's record - ``Owen Pickett is not a conservative,'' Chapman says - and expands on a stratagem that Chapman and nearly every other Republican is using this fall: Convince the voters that your opponent and President Clinton literally walk in the same pair of shoes.
``Owen Pickett,'' the ad continues, ``comes back to the district and talks like he's a conservative, but when you go and look at his voting record, on four of every five votes Owen Pickett has supported Bill Clinton.''
Pickett counters that strategy in one of his TV spots. He handles his relationship with Clinton with this statement: ``He is the president. If he's got good programs I'm going to support them. If his programs don't meet the needs and the requirements and aren't good for the people of the 2nd District of Virginia, I'm not going to be voting for them.''
Pickett should get points for dealing openly with the Clinton factor - many Democratic candidates have ducked Clinton so shamelessly this autumn that they avoid any mention of the president's name.
``His theme,'' said a Pickett spokesman, ``is his record of service to the 2nd District, his integrity, and his closeness to the people of the district. That's been his message 365 days a year for the last eight years, and there's no sense in changing it. What you see is what you get with him.''
Chapman's people have produced a much more polished set of advertisements this time around, with a cleaner and more professional look than his '92 ads or his primary-election spots, which at times appeared mawkish and inelegant.
His producer, however, favors a ``strobe effect'' editing technique that skips frames in the video, resulting in a herky-jerky look in which the candidate's lips are just slightly out of sync with the sound track. The technique is widely used in television commercials and is intended to give the tape a ``documentary'' look.
On Pickett's side, the video is much smoother. But if you listen carefully to one of his spots you will hear, in the background, a version of the Navy's ``Anchors Aweigh'' anthem that sounds like it was recorded by an organ grinder's monkey.
One note of harmony emerges, as well: Both campaigns favored a shot of their man strolling along the Elizabeth River at Waterside, with shipyard work booming in the background. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
CAMPAIGN VIDEO
/Courtesy of WTKR
Rep. Owen B. Pickett's campaign began its ads Monday night,
alternating two commercials in about 14 time slots a day. His ads
are remarkably similar to those he used in 1992.
CAMPAIGN VIDEO
Jim Chapman, the Republican challenger for the 2nd District
congressional seat, went on the air a week ago. His ads differ
markedly from his 1992 campaign in tone and content.
KEYWORDS: HOUSE OF DELEGATES RACE 2ND DISTRICT CANDIDATES
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