News-Record.com

You can say Vernon Robinson is a lot of things, but boring he is not. Robinson is the challenger in the Fightin’ 13th N.C. Congressional district.

Click here to listen to his latest radio ad, a parody of the Beverly Hillbilly’s theme. Click here for the accompanying news release.

That ads focus is on illegal immigration and how Democratic incumbent Brad Miller “is giving away all your tax dollars to these illegal aliens.” By way of a quick and dirty review:

• Ad pros: Parodies a catchy tune that everyone knows, has a pretty effective 10 seconds in the middle of its minute-long run where Robinson promises to “secure the borders, stop the handouts and protect your jobs,” issues that might resonate with and seem reasonable to voters.

• Ad cons: The language is less than delicate, referring to “sneaky aliens” and featuring a line at the end that reads “Hey all you illegals, put your shoes on. Go home.” Yes, that’ll get attention, but it will put off some voters. It also runs the risk of drawing attention to Robinson as an ad-man rather than Robinson as a candidate.

I have a call in to the Miller campaign asking when we might see some ads from the incumbent and for a response to this latest audio missive from Robinson. Will update when I get a reply.

Update: LuAnn Canipe, a spokeswoman for Miller, e-mailed this response from the Congressman:

"As is often the case with what Robinson says, I have no idea what he's talking about in most of this ad. From growing up in New York City and Los Angeles, Robinson obviously believes Southerners are bigoted ignoramuses. But, voters have proved him wrong before and I trust they will again."

In a phone interview, she also said that people who have been getting some of the Robinson campaign’s robo-calls have called the district office to complain.

"Over-saturation...is off-putting to people certainly," Canipe said.

Canipe said that the Miller campaign would probably run both radio and television ads, but had not settled on when. “It’s a thin line. At what point do people just get sick to death of it?” she said.