The creative designers behind Sharpe’s bumper sticker-looking, mostly empty space print media may have thought they were having a really bad dream when they saw the ad called Real LEADership on page A-9 of the Saturday edition of the Sanford Herald. The concept was wrong. The content was a serious miscalculation. The uncharacteristically tacky production detracted from the carefully built Cameron Sharpe “brand".
The sharp ads (pun is intended) attracted attention at any size and made them a symbol for Sharpe in the same vein as Tamara Brogan's apple. Cameron Sharpe is well liked in certain circles because he can be an affable guy who is comfortable to be around. He strikes a handsome pose like the one that surely helped Kennedy in his narrow defeat of Nixon.
Thia may sound more like the reason to choose a candidate for student council president, but it resonates with a public grown weary of the non-stop controversies thrust onto the school board. The message is to vote for Cameron Sharpe because he is Cameron Sharpe.
He had been given more or less free reign for his low key support for the positive changes in the schools; the same changes attacked by the Womack's militia. No one pinned him down on his softball, non-committal answers. The ads claimed no achievements and made no promises taking attention away from his occasional gaffes and a few votes to deflect the threats made by Womack and Shook.
Just at the last minute, he is connected in the voter's mind with the likes of Kirk Smith. Kirk Smith's view of the role of government is so limited that Lee County would have only a sheriff, fire departments, the register of deeds, and a large jail. A few services like trash collection might make the cut as legitimate functions of government. Not even education is mentioned as a legitimate purpose of government. Then there are the Kirk Smith cronies Frank Del Plazazo and Max Dolan who most definitely are "not from around here," and many votes will come Cameron Sharpe's way because he is.
These three of the militia face mostly Republicans in a primary. Cameron Sharpe has to also face Democrats and Unaffiliated Voters in a final election. And just one ad could undo the designer's remarkably well-crafted positioning of Sharpe and leave him linked at the hip with candidates adverse to spending tax money on schools.
See Posts 2 and 3:
1. Misguided Bullet: No to Teachers First
2. Womack Control of Schools
Go back to original Lee Dispatch post:
The Most Costly Ad of This Election
