Another Republican group launches ads about Cal Cunningham’s romantic texts
Republicans on Tuesday escalated their attacks on Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham for sexting with a California woman by launching a $4 million statewide TV ad buy.
In addition to the TV ads, the Senate Leadership Fund also began running a corresponding $300,000 radio campaign in the state.
The Leadership Fund is the second group in as many days to focus ads on Cunningham’s text messages to Arlene Guzman Todd, a married public relations strategist from California. The exchanges were first reported by the National File, a conservative web site.
Cunningham, who is married with children, acknowledged the texts Friday night. It’s unclear whether his relationship with Todd goes beyond the texts.
“I have hurt my family, disappointed my friends, and am deeply sorry,” he said in a statement sent to The News & Observer.
The SLF ad features images of headlines about the revelations and strongly suggests there was more to the relationship than just “explicit texts.”
“Cal Cunningham, what else is he hiding?” a female narrator says over pictures of the candidate’s broadcast apology.
Meanwhile, a group called Results for NC, is spending $50,000 to run a 15-second digital ad targeting independent voters in Charlotte, Raleigh and along the I-85 corridor, according to Dee Stewart, the group’s executive director.
Its ad features an image of text messages on a cell phone along with pictures of Cunningham and former Democratic U.S. Sen. John Edwards, whose sex scandal abruptly derailed his political career in 2008.
Edwards covered up his long affair with Rielle Hunter, who eventually bore his child.
Results for NC is the latest incarnation of a group called Grow NC Strong. That was a super PAC started in 2014 to support Republican Thom Tillis’s campaign against then-Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan. The group spent $663,000 in the 2014 Senate race.
North Carolina’s Senate race between Cunningham and now-Sen. Tillis is the country’s most expensive. The candidates and their allies have spent more than $229 million, according to Advertising Analytics.
The race could determine which party controls the Senate.
Another Republican super PAC, American Crossroads, is poised to invest another $7 million into the race, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The PAC was founded by Robert Duncan, chairman of the U.S. Postal Service board of governors.
On Monday Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning firm, released a weekend poll that showed Cunningham leading Tillis 48% to 42%. Its release said of the 58% of voters who’d heard the news, nearly six in 10 said it doesn’t make a difference in their vote.
But a poll released Tuesday by East Carolina University showed Tillis edging Cunningham 46% to 45%, a virtual tie. That’s consistent with an ECU Poll released last month.
“The polling data from the ECU Poll shows that most voters have made up their minds,” said Peter Francia, director of ECU’s Center for Survey Research. “So the ads are not going to have a dramatic effect on the numbers. However, in an extremely competitive race even small effects can have dramatic consequences.”
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Another Republican group launches ads about Cal Cunningham’s romantic texts."
