Hatch’s new ad
Go Deeper.
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I was just watching Mike Hatch's new TV ad and I guess it said something about him running for governor, but my attention was grabbed, instead by the three actors (or maybe they're not actors) portraying the students in college.
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It's been awhile since I've been on a public college campus (OK, it's been 30 years not including the Lyle Lovett concert I went to at Northrop once), but these don't look like a typical cross section of college students.
Of course, the ad isn't aimed at the college vote, it's aimed at the parents' vote, because they're the people who (a) vote (don't give me any sass, college kids, you made a lot of noise in 2004 but didn't turn out in very strong numbers), and (b) pay the tuition.
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Or do they?
According to a 2005 story that Art Hughes wrote, "a survey released this year by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system found a full three-quarters of students say their parents don't help them with the cost of their education."
So it's hard to say who this ad will resonate with. If it's the kids, I think you might want to get a better cross-section, and lose the stuff about paying for it with a rollback of offshore corporate breaks. College kids don't care how you're going to do it, just do it.
To the ad itself, he says "tuition has gone up 50% in four years." True, although Art's story says the number is 75% at the U between 1995 and 2003.
Heck, Pawlenty could come back and say "I've slowed the increase in tuition" (pulling something out of the playbook that the Minneapolis cops used yesterday by noting the 26-percent increase in crime through August was still better than the 60-percent in January).
And, of course, much of that increase is due to a decline in federal college aid, something a governor has little control over.
But those are just details.
