Dem Sink launches first ad in Fla. race vs. Jolly

Democrat Alex Sink launched her first ad on Wednesday, a positive bio spot that features her dad ribbing her for her “stubborn” insistence on running for Congress.

The ad comes the morning after David Jolly, a former staffer to the late Rep. Bill Young, won the Republican nomination to pursue his old boss’s seat. And it’s an attempt to frame Sink as a bipartisan bridge builder, in contrast to a gridlocked Congress.

{mosads}“When my daughter Alex told me she was running for Congress, I tried to talk her out of it — but she’s stubborn,” Kester Sink says at the opening of the ad.

He adds: “I told her nothing gets done in Washington.”

Sink responds: “I’ve always gotten things done by working with people you don’t always agree with.”

She mentions a need for bipartisan cooperation to “cap flood insurance and protect Social Security,” two central issues in the coastal district, which has a population that skews older.

Her father closes by declaring, “She could always get things done. Got that from her mother.”

“Don’t know where she got the stubbornness,” he adds with a wink.

Sink enters the race with the luxury of a war chest of more than $1 million that she hasn’t had to use for a primary, while Jolly must work hard to close the financial gap in order to launch his own advertising in the expensive Tampa Bay market before the special general election set for March 11.

Both are expected to receive help from partisan outside groups, which typically go on the attack, while the candidates themselves air positive spots. Jolly spent much of the primary airing positive introductory ads, which featured the likes of Beverly Young, Bill Young’s widow, and former “Price is Right” host Bob Barker.