[V]ermonters who ventured online Tuesday stood a good chance of seeing the governor’s re-election pitch, whether it was on Facebook, the e-edition of the Burlington Free Press or on the Drudge Report.
The Washington, D.C.-based Republican Governors Association has given $225,000 to the political action committee “A Stronger Vermont,” according to recent filings with the state. At least $100,000 of that has gone toward television ads that began airing in recent days.
Some of it is also going toward targeted online ad spending, with the PAC running a series of sponsored videos on Facebook. The video in each post is the same, but the text and thumbnail display photos appear to be targeted at different population segments.
Facebook’s ad archive tool gives only a general sense of how much is being spent on the ads and how many people they are reaching. The series on Scott reached at least 20,000 people in Vermont on the first day. The latest filings from the Stronger Vermont PAC list $8,000 is social media spending.
The RGA’s donor list includes the Koch brothers, Blue Cross Blue Shield, AT&T, and Pfizer. Scott is unique among the candidates for governor in his embrace of corporate contributions and support from corporate-funded PACs.
The governor is facing grocer Keith Stern in the Republican primary, and is widely expected to score an easy win despite his falling approval numbers among Republicans still stinging over his support for new gun control measures and the legalization of marijuana.
His campaign has so far been laser focused on economic issues. The message in all of the new campaign videos: a vote for Phil Scott is a vote for growing Vermont’s economy and against raising taxes.
“Phil Scott knows what it’s like to raise a family here,” says one of the ads. “That’s why Phil Scott said no to raising taxes on hard-working Vermonters.”
Scott’s campaign has said it is not coordinating with the PAC, but they are driving home the same message. The governor’s campaign sent out a campaign email Tuesday listing his economic achievements and highlighting a litany of proposed taxes that he claims credit for blocking.
Scott’s staff has been pushing out its own campaign ads on Facebook promoting high-profile endorsements and encouraging supporters to get out and vote in primaries next week.
Facebook increased the transparency of its political advertisements as part of the fallout from the 2016 elections, when it was revealed that the platform was being used in various ways to deceive and rile up voters.
Nationally, political advertisers are expected to set a high-water mark this year, with a net digital ad spend of $1.8 billion, up from $1.4 billion in 2016.
In Vermont’s Democratic primary race, both Brenda Siegel and James Ehlers have been occasionally spending to boost existing Facebook posts.
Siegel appears in a video initially streamed on Facebook live making her campaign pitch from her doorstep.
Ehlers promoted a video of Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen endorsing his candidacy.
As of the last filing deadline in mid-July, Siegel has raised $9,000 for her campaign in total, and Ehlers $50,000. Both had very low name recognition in a recent VPR/Vermont PBS poll, with about a quarter of Vermonters surveyed saying they had heard their names.
Christine Hallquist, who is leading the pack in fundraising and name recognition (and was profiled this week by Politico), has spent nothing on Facebook promotions since a June event listing, though she has a relatively slick campaign video on her website and social media pages.
Among the other notable spenders on sponsored political content in Vermont is Bradford Broyles, founder of production company Public Spectacle Media, who paid to promote Fan Club, an online comedy series that often mocks Gov. Scott.
The promoted post, which targets users in Vermont and the Washington, D.C., area, features an episode making fun of the candidates in both primaries.
“The Thunder Gov. Phil and Jason Gibbs ticket running on the ‘Screw the Republican base we’ll do whatever we want platform,” one of the hosts gibes, referring to the governor’s chief of staff.
Both Seven Days and Vermont Public Radio have taken deep dives into Fan Club, and who’s behind it. The VPR article connected Broyles to the show through videos posted to an account under his name. Broyles said he was unavailable to talk about the show Tuesday afternoon because he was boarding a flight.
