Jim Hood for Mississippi Attorney General

Political Context

In 2011, Attorney General Jim Hood faced a daunting re-election. Polling showed only 46% of Mississippi voters supported Hood’s re-election. Even worse, President Obama had a dismal 37% favorable/49% unfavorable rating among Mississippians. As the only statewide elected Democrat, Hood was the GOP’s top target.

Hood was attacked for not joining other Attorneys General in filing suit against the Obama healthcare plan. The GOP further claimed Hood awarded state contracts to law firms who in exchange gave him campaign contributions. And Hood was targeted for taking on BP, State Farm, Entergy and other corporations on behalf of consumers.

To run against Hood, the GOP picked former prosecutor, Judge and Public Safety Commissioner Steve Simpson. Simpson came from a well-known Gulf Coast family and was viewed as a tough campaigner who could effectively make the case against Hood.

Strategy

The Hood television ad strategy was to show Hood was “one of us” committed to “Protecting Mississippi Families.” In contrast, the ads showed Simpson “Living It Up at Our Expense” while Simpson ”Failed to Protect Us.”

The opening ads Simple/Swear/Crime conveyed Hood’s values. Simple showed Hood was not just tough on crime, but was “one of us.” Swear focused on Hood’s honesty and accomplishments. Crime was a law enforcement testimonial that Hood was a tough Attorney General.

As expected, Simpson’s first ad attacked Hood over President Obama’s healthcare plan. We responded with Court, which rebutted the attack and took Simpson to task for “Living It Up at Our Expense.” We then ran Cybercrime, which touted Hood’s efforts to  protect children from online sexual predators. Simpson continued attacking on President Obama’s healthcare plan. To stay on the offensive, we aired Expense and then False, which showed Simpson “Failed to Protect Us,” by giving an extremely light sentence to a child molester.

Concurrently with the TV ad campaign, we ran an aggressive social media advertising effort that used Facebook to target women voters to gain support and followers.

We closed with Sunday School, a testimonial from Hood’s wife—Debbie. There was no better person to summarize the case for Jim Hood before votes were cast.

Outcome

Jim Hood won a resounding 61% victory. Despite $500,000 of ads aired against him for not opposing President Obama’s healthcare plan, Hood was the only Democrat to win statewide, losing only four of 82 counties. Hood not only defeated Simpson, but Hood won with the same percentage of vote as the newly elected Republican Governor.