Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper reports this morning that there is an "eerie silence" in the Trinity campaign, and notes a lack of advertising. Perhaps this is because the anti-road side has yet to run an ad in The News? (That the pro-road side doesn’t have to buy an ad in The News goes without saying.)
Wamre and I actually discussed this yesterday, since we had expected our mailboxes to be inundated with pretty park pictures by now. Why haven’t we? After all, it’s not like the pro-road side doesn’t have the money. I wrote a little about this in my October magazine column, which comes out next week, as part of a larger look at how the campaign will go.
There will certainly be advertising from the pro-road side. I think the delay has to do with two things. First, they can’t figure out what to say to get people in Texas to vote for a toll road. Second, this is not the kind of campaign these people are used to running. It’s much more old-fashioned, the way things were before TV and focus groups. And I think they’re confused by it. It doesn’t mean they can’t be effective; rather, they don’t have a template they can pop into place. Plus, the pro-road side, for all its money and big names, is a large, unwieldy group with lots of egos. The old joke that a camel is a horse designed by a committee could apply here.
Note to pro-road side: I won’t be able to attend the news conference today where you will unveil your spiffy program, make a few snide comments about those of us who disagree with you, and tell us how the road will save civilization as we know it. I have a deadline today for a major international magazine. Hard to believe, I know, that I’m not just another yokel writing for the Weed and Seed News.
