Rathje first 2nd District GOP candidate on TV

Cedar Rapids businessman Steve Rathje is the first of the four 2

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District Republican hopefuls to take his campaign to TV.

Rathje will begin airing a 30-second TV ad this week, according to www.theiowarepublican.com.

The ad, entitled, “Compete,” features Rathje talking about jobs. His company, International Procurement Services, helps American firms find U.S. suppliers and manufacturers rather than rely on overseas vendors.

TheIowaRepublican.com reported Rathje's TV ad will run on Fox News and KCRG at a cost of $5900 for the week.

Here's Rathje's ad followed by two takes on the 2

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District race:

TheIowaRepublican.com: The 2nd District race is going to be fascinating to watch. The best-known candidate is Miller-Meeks, who won the Republican nomination by just 214 votes in 2008. Newcomer, Rob Gettemy, has a significant cash-on-hand advantage over Miller-Meeks, but not many people in the district know him yet. He will have to be committed to using all of his campaign cash, most of which came as a personal loan, on radio and TV if he wants to win the nomination.

Rathje, on the other hand, is interesting in his own right. His 2008 primary campaign for the U.S. Senate was a complete failure. While he finished in third place out of a field of three, Rathje did do well in Linn County. In his congressional campaign, he has stressed his business background, something he failed to do in his 2008 campaign. Rathje's TV ad is well done and highlights his greatest strength as a candidate, his experience in bringing jobs back to America.

BleadingHeartlend.com:

With the June 8 primary just four weeks away, Steve Rathje of Cedar Rapids is the first of the four Republican candidates in Iowa's second Congressional district to start running television ads.

This strikes me as a very solid introductory ad, highlighting Rathje's experience as CEO of a company that "find[s] people in Iowa who could make goods quicker, faster, better and cheaper than the foreign competitors."

According to The Iowa Republican, Rathje is paying about $5,900 to run this commercial on Fox News and KCRG in Cedar Rapids for the week. He probably can afford to stay up on TV until the June 8 primary. At the end of the first quarter, Rathje's campaign had $55,586 cash on hand, trailing Mariannette Miller-Meeks ($72,702) and political newcomer Rob Gettemy ($120,815 including a $100,000 loan from the candidate). I'm surprised Rathje was able to raise nearly as much money as Miller-Meeks, the 2008 GOP nominee against Representative Dave Loebsack. Gettemy probably has more potential for out-of-district donations now that the National Republican Congressional Committee has put him "on the radar."

Loebsack's Republican challengers don't differ much on the issues. If three of them can afford paid media for the final month of the campaign, that will raise the chances for the nomination to be decided at a district convention. The fourth Republican candidate, Chris Reed, has little money to spend before June 8. He needs to hope that his

far-right endorsers and

team of volunteers are able to deliver a surprising number of grassroots votes.