John Bolton airing TV ad attacking Angela Alsobrooks

[mahatmakanejeeves]

John Bolton airing TV ad attacking Angela Alsobrooks

Josh Kurtz, Maryland Matters
August 31, 2024, 2:01 PM

This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.

The ad looks like any political TV attack ad: Gray, grainy images. Big, bold words that convey negative information. Pictures of scary, rogue international leaders. … The ad, which began airing this week, targets Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. But it doesn’t come from Alsobrooks’ Republican opponent, former Gov. Larry Hogan.

Instead, it’s paid for by the John Bolton PAC, the political action committee of John Bolton, former President Donald Trump’s one-time national security adviser, and the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under former President George W. Bush.

The 30-second spot has a female narrator and is interspersed with pictures of crime scenes and crime statistics.

{snip}

Most people probably don’t remember that Bolton, 75, is a native Baltimorean, the son of a firefighter and a homemaker who grew up in the city at the Baltimore County line, near Catonsville. He won a scholarship to the prestigious McDonough School, where he headed a Students for Goldwater chapter during the 1964 presidential election. Later, as a Yale Law School student, he interned with then-Vice President Spiro Agnew, a Marylander.

[teran]

1. I've seen the ad

And I saw that it was from Bolton's PAC, but I had no idea he grew up in Baltimore. Learn something new every day.

It's hard to find up-to-the-minute crime statistics, but from what I have seen at least some of the numbers he cites about PGCo are definitely spurious.

I live in PG, and I like Angela Alsobrooks. I am concerned, however, about her campaign. Larry Hogan was a popular Republican governor is a reliably blue state. I am getting the sense that the Alsobrooks campaign may be taking too much for granted, not unlike Anthony Brown's run for governor in 2014. I think there are a sizable number of more centrist Marylanders who are willing to split the ticket.

[Sparkly]

2. I'm really perturbed by these ads

and Hogan's whole campaign.

First, it annoys me that Hogan is trying to run as some kind of "independent" candidate who straddles the mythical middle, but obviously, his whole campaign is a big part of the effort to turn the Senate RED.

Second, Bolton had been positioning himself as anti-Trump and sensible, as well. But this is NOT sensible, because the GOP remains the party of that monster. He hides behind the PAC, and the ads are misleading to the point of dishonest.

I've volunteered for Alsobrooks, and hope MANY others do, too!!!