Tim Derickson Wants to Clean Up the Bull**** in Congress

As Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner had first-hand experience with the observation that attempting to mobilize a majority of his party was about as difficult as herding cats. But one of the candidates hoping to replace him in Congress happens to be familiar with wrangling much larger animals. Tim Derickson, one of the many candidates running in the special election for Ohio’s vacant eighth congressional district, “grew up a third-generation dairy farmer.” That explains the setting of his new ad, and the inspiration for his metaphor about Washington politics. “Washington politicians – we care and feed ‘em. But in the end, it always stinks,” narrates Derickson, as the camera pans from cows laying around the barn to a big pile of, well, cow manure. As a dairy farmer, Derickson says, “I’m used to cleaning up the mess.” The ad shows Derickson shoveling manure as he lists off the messes he’s helped clean up in his other job as a state representative. “In Ohio, I helped eliminate an $8 billion deficit, balanced the budget by cutting waste, and created jobs.” Derickson promises, “I’ll do the same in Washington, because I’m fed up with their bull…” before a timely interruption from one of his cows.

From Farm to Congress

The conservative Derickson appears to be borrowing liberally from previous Republican candidates with this ad. In 2012, Florida large animal veterinarian Ted Yoho was on his way to a primary victory and a seat in Congress after his ad depicting career politicians as “pigs feeding at the trough” and rolling around in the mud. More famously, current Iowa Senator Joni Ernst first burst onto the national scene with her ad about hog castration and her promise to “make ‘em squeal” in Washington. But it was an ad later in the election, in which Ernst went back to the pig pen, that is the clear inspiration for this Derickson ad: “It’s a mess – dirty, noisy, and it stinks. Not this lot. I’m talking about the one in Washington.” It even included the same joke of using an animal noise as a censorship beep, while Ernst spoke about “cleaning up the mess in Washington.” In a district Mitt Romney won by 26 points in 2012, Boehner’s successor will in all likelihood be decided by the Republican primary election on March 15. If Derickson is hoping to pull off the victory, he’s certainly operating from a playbook that’s worked before.