With a movie star's help, the Democrats discover a wedge issue

Michael J. Fox isn't the only one making pro-stem-cell research ads for Democrats -- and the numbers show the ads might be working

By Alex Koppelman

Read more: Politics, Rush Limbaugh, News, Michael J. Fox, 2006 Elections, Alex Koppelman

AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato

Actor Michael J. Fox speaks Monday during an election rally in Columbus, Ohio, for Rep. Sherrod Brown, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Nov. 1, 2006 | DES MOINES, Iowa -- Despite making a crowd of more than a thousand wait in a hot, packed auditorium for an hour, the biggest names in Iowa's Democratic Party got a healthy round of applause when they finally took the stage Monday afternoon for a rally at Drake University. Sen. Tom Harkin and gubernatorial hopeful Chet Culver, who seems poised to win on Election Day, waved to the crowd and sat down, and Rep. Leonard Boswell stepped to the lectern to address the assembled.

But a minute into his speech, Boswell had to stop talking. A murmur began to rise at the side of the stage and then a wall-shaking roar filled the Olmstead Center as the audience realized the rally's real attraction had entered the building. Only after actor Michael J. Fox had mounted the stage and hugged and shook hands with each candidate in turn was Boswell able to continue speaking.

Once best known as a television and movie star, Fox has within the past two weeks recaptured the nation's attention as the star of commercials and in-person appearances for Democratic candidates who favor stem cell research. More than a few people in the Drake University crowd were holding signs thanking him for his very public stance, but Fox has also been slammed for it, most notably by conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh. As Fox listened to the other speakers and waited his turn to speak, the symptoms of his Parkinson's disease, the same symptoms recently mocked on-air by Limbaugh, were apparent as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, his legs racked by tremors. When he rose and began to speak, he took a jab at his chief critic, without ever mentioning his name.

"It was suggested that I not talk to anybody until my symptoms went away," Fox said. He brought his right hand to his chest. "They just want me to go away."

"We're not going anywhere," Fox said. "We're not going to go away until the diseases go away." The room erupted in another roar. After the speech, a woman clutching a photograph of Fox began to sob uncontrollably.

Early polls show that much of the nation may be similarly affected. Fox's first commercial, which boosts the Senate candidacy of Claire McCaskill in Missouri, began airing Oct. 21. A survey by HCD Research, a marketing firm that was one of the first to notice the impact of the Swift Boat ads on the 2004 presidential race, showed that after viewing the ad, those who considered themselves independents became 10 percent more likely to vote Democratic. Republicans, too, were profoundly affected by the ad: After seeing it, 10 percent of those who identified themselves as Republican reported that they would now vote for a Democratic or independent candidate. Even the Swift Boat ads, says Glenn Kessler, HCD's co-founder and managing partner, didn't have that type of effect. The Swift Boat ads did little to change the number of people supporting John Kerry, instead affecting the intensity of their support.

For the past six years, as the Bush administration has successfully trotted out one social wedge issue after another to turn out values voters and swing voters alike, the Democrats have been helpless bystanders. Democrats have long needed a wedge issue, says Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, "[but] they haven't had a damn one." During this election cycle, however, with seats in even supposedly safe Republican districts in play, stem cell ads have been deployed by Democrats and their allies in many key House contests, as well as in several of the tight races that may determine the balance of power in the Senate. Sabato thinks they may have found the wedge issue they need. "That's good news for the Democrats."

Fox's ads may not even be the best pro-stem-cell research spots on the air. Evan Tracey, CEO of TNSMI/CMAG, a firm that specializes in the analysis of political advertising, bestows that honor on an ad produced by a 527 group called Majority Action Fund, which is staffed by former Democratic operatives. That ad features actors portraying a family in which each member discusses an ailment he or she will one day suffer. The son announces that he will be paralyzed in a car accident, the mother says she will develop Alzheimer's -- "I won't recognize my husband, or my kids" - and the daughter reveals that she will be diagnosed with diabetes. All then castigate their local Republican congressman for voting against stem cell research. At the ad's climax, they again make it personal:

"Who knows? Maybe I'm your mother. Maybe I'm your grandson. Maybe I'm your little girl. How do you know I'm not you?"

"There are real families that have potential for cures here," says Mark Longabaugh, the executive director of Majority Action, explaining the reasoning behind the ad. "This Republican Congress has sort of stuck its head in the sand on this issue. And I think it's an enormously powerful issue."

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