ANN ARBOR – Republican gubernatorial candidate and Ann Arbor technology venture capitalist Rick Snyder’s “tough nerd” ad has helped his campaign spark interest among the general public and helped bring focus to his status outside of the “professional politicians that have done damage to the state,” staff members told reporters Monday.

And they defended the “nerd” concept of the ad, saying it showed that Snyder was a smart man who was not tied to special interests.

With Snyder having to best four other Republicans for the gubernatorial nomination – Attorney General Mike Cox, Oakland Sheriff Mike Bouchard, U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Holland and Sen. Tom George of Kalamazoo – the ad should go through to the issue most on people’s mind, the economy, said John Weaver, Snyder’s chief strategist.

The ad debuted Sunday during the Super Bowl, and almost immediately after on Facebook a number of top Republican strategists in the state sharply criticized the ad as a “missed opportunity.” In the Detroit media market, the ad aired during the less expensive time on the pre-game show.

Weaver said the ad would help “cut through the clutter” of political advertising to help introduce Snyder to the voters. He said he recognized that Snyder has to start boosting his name identification at this point. He said he recognized that polls showed Snyder had just 3 percent to 4 percent support “and that’s with a 5 percent margin of error.”

But Snyder is the only candidate of all the candidates that has a record of creating jobs, Weaver said, and that experience counts when among the voters the main worry is the economy.

“If you ask the voters to rank from 1 to 20 the issues they are worried about, from 1 to 18 it’s the economy and jobs,” Weaver said.

The ad begins with pictures of a number of politicians, those running for governor (except for Hoekstra and George) and those not, including Governor Jennifer Granholm, Lt. Governor John Cherry Jr. and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Hoekstra was not included in the lineup because he is not a career politician who has contributed to the state’s problems, Weaver said, though he did say Hoekstra had contributed “to the gridlock in Washington.”

The ad provides some honest, self-deprecating humor, Weaver said. Asked if a nerd is the kind of politician the public would like well enough to support, Weaver said the state’s voters are smart and understand something other than “cookie-cutter ads and cookie-cutter boilerplate solutions” are needed for the state.

Shortly after the ad ran, however, a number of Republicans criticized its message and execution. In an interplay on the social networking Internet site, Facebook, they argued that the ad missed some opportunities. Bill Nowling, spokesperson for the Michigan House Republicans, said the ad missed a chance to “tap into the anger and unrest that is out there.” He also suggested it was too early for Snyder to begin advertising.

Several others questioned whether the “nerd” concept would work with the voters. Greg McNeilly called the ad a “creative concept,” but said it failed in execution.

And Rep. Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge) said, “What a way to waste money.”

But one person posting, a Sheri Dee, said that she looked up Snyder’s website as soon as the ad ran.

And Weaver said traffic to Snyder’s website was up considerably after the ad ran.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

a>>