Brace yourself for political ads

Here's good news for Connecticut residents who can't wait to see the next political commercial on television.

As the August primary approaches, commercials from some of the candidates for U.S. Senate, this year's only statewide race, are appearing on a TV screen near you.

Alas, there's nothing yet from the Republican side. Candidate Linda McMahon, coasting along with a huge lead in the polls, may be resting her money for the general election while her underfinanced challenger, Chris Shays, is yet to produce an ad.

Ms. McMahon did have a heavy schedule of spots before the party convention and will surely be back on TV with a vengeance in the general election.

But the two Democratic candidates, Chris Murphy and Susan Bysiewicz, are on the air.

Ms. Bysiewicz, the underdog, is offering a testimonial from a woman grateful "Susan got a law passed" that allowed her to remain in the hospital long enough to recover from a mastectomy.

At first glance, it's an impressive message until we realize it's also a rather ancient one. It's been 15 years since the General Assembly passed the bill to end "drive-by mastectomies" by requiring insurance companies to cover longer hospital stays, if needed.

While Susan may have gotten the law passed, as the commercial claims, she wasn't exactly the lone legislator. Legislative records show the bill had more than 90 co-sponsors. It's like President Obama campaigning on what he did in the Illinois Senate in 1997. She's added a second commercial this week, repeating the mastectomy bill to show she can get things done.

Murphy's first commercial is even more fanciful. Remember "The Last Hurrah," the great political novel and movie starring Spencer Tracy as an old time machine politician from Boston making his final run for mayor at the dawn of the television era?

There was a funny scene with the mayor's youthful opponent filming an ad for the new medium with his telegenic family, including the disruptive family dog. The ad is a disaster and everyone looks foolish, except the dog, the only cast member acting natural.

Nowadays, candidates are smart enough to leave the dog home but the motive remains the same, to portray the candidate as a regular guy, just like you and me, but also wonderful.

Check out Murphy's ad with the candidate and his attractive wife and children shopping in a supermarket and you'll see what we mean.

Wife Cathy jokes that "going shopping is a little different with our family" as fawning fans stop them to compliment Chris for championing women's rights or to ask how he's going to bring jobs back to Connecticut.

He doesn't answer but they only have 30 seconds, so viewers presumably understand he will.

We can hope a debate at the end of the month will be more helpful to voters looking to become informed.

And if you long for the nasty, negative commercials of past campaigns, don't despair. This is just the primary; the general election is coming.