NBA Kills Zombie Campaign Ad Months After Senate Election Ended
- Unplanned rerun was an abortion-focused US Senate attack ad
- Spot ran repeatedly on basketball league’s in-house TV network
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A campaign ad from Colorado’s US Senate race somehow nearly outlasted the Denver Nuggets’ playoff ambitions.
Though Sen. Michael Bennet (D) won re-election in November, League Pass, which gives subscribers live access to the National Basketball Association’s games, had a campaign attack ad in its rotation of commercials as recently as May 19, based on the Twitter gripe of an annoyed viewer.
The spot hasn’t aired since Bloomberg Government started making inquiries, a spokesman for the NBA confirmed. A source familiar with the advertising arrangement attributed the error to a third-party ad vendor, and Bennet campaign manager Justin Lamorte guessed the problem stemmed from a “glitch” in the platform.
The spot featured women criticizing Bennet’s ultimately unsuccessful opponent, Republican Joe O’Dea, on the subject of abortion rights. Democrats pointed out the Republican had declared his support for the confirmation of all three of former President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, who then voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The Bennet campaign hasn’t spent any money on TV advertising this year, according to his latest filing with the Federal Election Commission.
Meanwhile, the Nuggets face off against the Miami Heat in the first game of the NBA Finals on Thursday night.
As for O’Dea, his name has been circulated as a possible challenger in a bellwether US House district now represented by Democrat Yadira Caraveo. Zack Roday, a Republican strategist who served as O’Dea’s spokesman last year, offered no clues about whether non-basketball fans in Colorado will be seeing more of the defeated Senate candidate. “He’s busy running his company,” Roday said in a text message. “But know he’d love to serve!”
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— With assistance from David Hood.
To contact the reporter on this story: Zach C. Cohen in Washington at zcohen@bloombergindustry.com
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