Pro-transportation group launches first TV ad
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A WeGo bus at a busy intersection downtown. Photo: Eilon Paz/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The political group backing Mayor Freddie O'Connell's $3.1 billion transportation funding plan released its first television ad this week.
Why it matters: The Nashville Moves group has also been knocking on doors, advertising on social media sites and raising awareness at large gatherings like sporting events.
- Add it all up, and pro-transportation side has a decisive organizing advantage with early voting right around the corner.
Between the lines: O'Connell proposes a half-cent sales tax increase to fund the plan, which would modernize traffic signals, expand bus service and build new sidewalks in Nashville.
Driving the news: The debut ad focuses on Nashville's traffic problems. It shows a mom missing her son's football game and a family missing out on eating dinner together due to traffic.
- "This November there's a chance to fix Nashville's traffic problems," the ad's narrator says.
- The ad underscores the group's strategy to focus on traffic lights and other improvements in an effort to win over residents who don't take the bus.
The latest: Jeff Morris, executive director of the pro-transportation group Nashville Moves, tells Axios the television ad is just one component of the plan to win over voters.
- "Anywhere people are gathering, that's where we want to be," he says, adding that the "ground game" has ramped up recently.
- Yard signs are being delivered this week, and canvassers are regularly out in neighborhoods. The first mail piece will hit mailboxes in the coming weeks as well, Morris says.
The other side: Without the funding to match the pro-transportation group's efforts, opponents are focusing on a grassroots strategy that includes speaking directly to neighborhood groups about their concerns.
The bottom line: Nashville has had spectacular failures in trying to expand its transit system — from the east-west bus rapid transit proposal called the Amp, to the rejected 2018 transit referendum.
- Despite those losses, there's a sense of confidence among transportation supporters as the election enters the home stretch.