A.G. Gancarski
With Early Voting just days away in Jacksonville, two citywide Democratic candidates are running ads that take on the problem of street crime. Their messaging seems independent from that of Mayor Alvin Brown.
Starting on Thursday morning and running through Tuesday, At Large City Council candidate Tommy Hazouri is running an ad, Ready to Work, Day and Night touting his proficiency in crime prevention, a tack he has been rehearsing in trips to local senior centers.
“Creating jobs … improving education … that’s the day job I’m ready to tackle,” Hazouri says in the voiceover intro, “but if your family doesn’t feel safe at night, none of that matters.”
The ad targets the former Jacksonville mayor’s commitment to keeping “every neighborhood safe at night,” along with “good-paying jobs” and “quality education,” before closing with a call to vote for him. Though the ad is slated to run just through Tuesday, its lack of reference to Early Voting suggests that another ad buy can be made with this spot should the campaign have the finances to do so.
Another Democrat, Ken Jefferson, running for Jacksonville sheriff, is messaging too about the crime problem in his ad, Let’s Not Lose Another Generation.
With a graphic billing him as a “Jacksonville native,” the ad assembles a gritty tableau of exterior shots of a Section 8 apartment complex festooned with crime tape, coupled with shots of a chain link fence with barbed wire topping it.
Jefferson begins by saying “I grew up here in Washington Heights, where my parents provided a safe home for our family. I know these streets better than most. Crime was bad, but it’s nothing like today.”
As Jefferson walks through the complex with his father, we see shots of bullet holes in red brick, as the voiceover continues: “Murder, drugs, gangs are rampant in our streets.”
About 18 seconds in, a chord change in the guitar-driven soundtrack signals an impending solution. We see a shot of smiling law enforcement officers, as the candidate touts his published plan to “address these issues.” He repeats his vow to reduce “crime and gang violence by 25 percent in [his first year] in office,” words counterpointed by a shot of his son in a button-down plaid shirt tossing a football.
The spot ends with the candidate cocking his arm back to throw a spiral pass, as the candidate closes with his tag line: “Let’s not lose another generation.”
