With First Ad, Steve Grossman Goes (Mostly) Positive

Last week, I told you to “expect [Steve] Grossman to start spending soon” on television advertising, and the wait wasn’t long at all: he announced today that his first spot—the first candidate ad of the Massachusetts gubernatorial race—will begin airing Tuesday morning, seven weeks before the primary election.

The ad, which you can see below, is a mostly positive introductory ad pitching viewers on the current Treasurer’s job-creation credentials.

But it begins by painting a contrast between Grossman and some unnamed, hypothetical “career prosecutor”—whoever could that be?—using the rhetorical question “Who do you trust to grow our economy as Governor?” The choice given, between above-(un)mentioned prosecutor and a “proven jobs creator,” indicates the line of attack Grossman thinks can close the polling gap between him and Martha Coakley. Concerned Democrats might wonder if this will begin to frame the expected Coakley vs. Charlie Baker general election exactly as the Republican wants it.

No matter; Grossman needs to play catch-up. This new level of economically-centered aggressiveness toward the Democratic frontrunner was clear when I spoke with him Sunday at the Milford Portuguese Picnic. In fact, he used the very same phrase in that conversation: “Do you want a career prosecutor, or a career job creator?”

He also lashed out against Coakley’s claims to have come into office in 2007 to work with Governor Deval Patrick on economic growth, only to run headlong into Wall Street’s evil headwinds. “What is Martha Coakley talking about?” Grossman said to me. “I didn’t see that being her themes, running in 2006. She was running for prosecutor.”

This Grossman ad, while mostly positive, will also—intentionally or not—signal a direction to the pro-Grossman Mass Forward Super PAC. That entity has been raising money (how much is unknown, among much rumor and speculation) that it will presumably begin spending soon. You can expect those ads to be much harder-hitting about Coakley.

Anyway, here is the new ad; I’m told the initial buy is a hefty $300,000 so I expect you’ll see it soon anyway.