Boring, cookie-cutter commercials may not help candidates like Republican John Archer much, but at least they do no harm. The same can’t be said for Representative Dave Loebsack’s latest tv ad, unless picking a fight with a major employer in your district has some upside I’m missing.

Loebsack’s campaign launched the 30-second spot “Problem” this week.

My transcript:

Loebsack’s voice: I’m Dave Loebsack, and I approve this message. [photo of Loebsack leaning against red pickup truck]

Male voice-over: Iowa lost over 11,000 jobs due to unfair trade, outsourced overseas [blurry image of empty warehouse or factory floor, words on screen 11,000 IOWA JOBS LOST DUE TO UNFAIR TRADE Source: EPI, 7/20/05]

and John Archer is part of the problem. [black and white footage of Archer speaking at some event, words on screen CORPORATE EXECUTIVE JOHN ARCHER]

Archer is an executive for the global division of a corporation that shipped 900 jobs to Mexico. [view of North America map, words on screen JOHN ARCHER 900 JOBS SHIPPED TO MEXICO Source: TAA DATABASE]

And Archer supports more unfair trade, with South Korea. [view of Asia map, words on screen JOHN ARCHER SUPPORTS MORE UNFAIR TRADE Source: ARCHER CAMPAIGN EVENT 10/22/11]

Worse, Archer has personal investments in manufacturing companies in Asia. [footage of smiling Archer, words on screen CORPORATE EXECUTIVE JOHN ARCHER INVESTMENTS IN MANUFACTURING IN ASIA Source: ARCHER PERSONAL FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE, 11/9/11]

John Archer: international corporate executive at our expense. [image of hand holding business card that reads John Archer, International Corporate Executive, with a globe logo, and words AT OUR EXPENSE under card; the paid for by Loebsack for Congress is near the bottom of the screen]

If I were Loebsack, I would fire the consultants who created this commercial immediately.

Archer is an in-house attorney for John Deere. He’s drafting contracts, not making the call on where factories open or where workers are hired.

The ad doesn’t mention the name of Archer’s employer, presumably because John Deere has a favorable image in Iowa. Archer mentions his connection to Deere every chance he gets.

Republicans are having a field day with this commercial. Archer released this statement:

On the very day that over 400 people found out they are losing their job today at Siemens in Ft. Madison, Congressman Dave Loebsack attacks one of the 2nd District’s largest employers, John Deere. I’m proud to have spent more than a decade working at John Deere, alongside thousands of other Iowans. Dave Loebsack is so out of touch with what it takes to create real good-paying jobs, he attacks John Deere, while voting to spend our tax dollars for supposed job stimulus that ultimately stimulated jobs in China.

Dave Loebsack’s desperate attacks are exactly why Washington has failed to get our economy back on track. Instead of trying to help put America back to work, Loebsack and his Washington friends are attacking John Deere, a global company that has helped thousands of employees raise their families in Iowa. While Loebsack has spent his time in Washington making it harder for businesses to grow, I will take my private sector experience to Washington and help job creators, not attack them.

Dave Loebsack certainly does not understand hard working Iowans.

Conservative blogger Shane Vander Hart quotes Ken Golden, director of global public relations for Deere & Company.

It is essential that Deere & Company’s strong job performance be accurately reflected. Deere has added more than 5,000 jobs to its U.S. workforce in the past two years. In addition, more than half of our capital improvements at John Deere have been in U.S. facilities in recent years. As an example, we have invested more than one billion dollars in our Waterloo, Iowa facilities in the past eight years.

Our record overall proves a strong commitment to American manufacturing. John Deere is a global enterprise. In our history, we have moved the manufacturing of various products or components to different locations so that the company remains globally competitive. Jobs have moved to and from U.S. factories.

[…]

2nd Update: Golden got back to me on a question I had about how many people John Deere employs in Iowa.  They employ over 15,100 people in Iowa.  They have increased that by 2000 over the last couple of years, and Loebsack wants to complain about them adding 900 jobs in Mexico when they added jobs in his home state?

Craig Robinson pointed out at The Iowa Republican,

In 2010, John Deere PAC made five $1000 contributions to Loebsack’s campaign.  In 2008, John Deere PAC contributed $2000 to his campaign.  Since Loebsack cashed John Deere’s checks, it’s safe to assume that he knew who they were in previous election cycles.  It’s also apparent that Loebsack wasn’t overly concerned about John Deere’s foreign operations when they were giving his campaign money in previous elections.

Redistricting has put Loebsack in an unfamiliar district that now includes Clinton and Scott counties in the eastern part of the state, and Jasper, Marion, Clarke, and Decatur counties in the west.  Getting to know a new district is hard enough, but insulting one of the main employers makes things all the more difficult.  It’s not just the people that John Deere employs directly that Loebsack has offended, but also the people who proudly use their equipment, as well as the people who sell and service it.

John Deere is also a good corporate citizen.  They sponsor a golf tournament in the Quad Cities and a race at the Iowa Speedway.  

Loebsack and his advisers may think they pulled a fast one by not mentioning John Deere in their commercial. Who doesn’t hate outsourcing and “unfair trade”? Trouble is, Republicans will spread the word far and wide.

Archer doesn’t have a lot of money to spend on paid media and frankly doesn’t come across as a very appealing candidate, from what I’ve seen. Now, by attacking “corporate executive” Archer, Loebsack has given his challenger a chance to introduce himself to IA-02 voters as a proud John Deere employee.

That’s political malpractice.

Any comments about the IA-02 race are welcome in this thread.