Businessman Mike Braun released a new television ad Monday in which he strolls around town mocking his rivals — Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita — in the Indiana GOP Senate primary as a couple of cardboard cutouts.
Mr. Braun, a former state lawmaker, has emerged as the wildcard in the May 8 primary election and has campaigned as the outsider, saying it is hard to tell the difference among career politicians like Mr. Messer and Mr. Rokita.
“You know these guys?” Mr. Braun asks a woman in the ad.
“No,” she responds. “It is hard to tell them apart.”
The cardboard cutouts portray Mr. Rokita and Mr. Messer as carbon copies of one another. Both are shown flashing a smile and a thumbs-up and wearing similar blue blazers, red ties and white-colored shirts.
Mr. Braun tells voters the congressmen supported deals that added to the national debt and voted in favor of giving the Obama administration the power to negotiate trade deals that could not be amended or filibustered by Congress.
“Both lawyers, never practiced, been in the game of politics all their lives,” he tells another woman.
One man quips, “These guys look like they are cut from the same cardboard.”
Between chats, the television footage shows Mr. Braun toting the cardboard cutouts, one in each arm, around town as “Temptation Sensation” — the theme song from the television show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” — plays in the background.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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