After Bruce Springsteen announced plans to participate in the anti-Bush concert tour, Vote for Change, a New York candidate for U.S. Senate has countered with a “Boycott the Boss” television spot.
Conservative Party candidate Marilyn O’Grady appears in a 30-second televison commercial, urging her supporters to show their solidarity to Bush by not buying Springsteen’s music.
“He thinks making millions with a song-and-dance routine allows him to tell you how to vote,” O’Grady says in the spot. “Here’s my vote: Boycott the Boss. If you don’t buy his politics, don’t buy his music.”
(The spot makes no mention of O’Grady’s views on illegally downloading Springsteen’s music for free.)
Springsteen is just one of the high-profile artists who have signed on for the tour, which also includes Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, R.E.M. and the Dixie Chicks, among others. So far, O’Grady is only taking issue with the Boss’ participation.
Springsteen “has a right to say what he thinks, but we have an equal right to speak,” O’Grady said in a statement. “Now that he’s moved onto the political stage to bash my president, it is entirely fair to respond.”
Apparently the buck stops here in terms of the response gameSpringsteen’s reps said the musician has no plans to comment on the ad.
The Boss has generally refrained from political involvement in the past, but said he felt his presence on the Vote for Change tour was warranted.
“I felt like I couldn’t have written the music I’ve written and been onstage singing about the things that I’ve sung about for the last 25 years and not take part in this particular election,” Springsteen said in a statement earlier this month.
The Vote for Change tour kicks off Oct. 1 in Pennsylvania. Groups of musicians have been matched up and are set to be dispatched to over 30 cities in nine swing states, including Ohio, Wisconsin and (big surprise) Florida.
Springsteen and the E Street Band will team with R.E.M., John Fogerty and Bright Eyes to play five dates in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Ann Arbor, St. Paul and Orlando.
The tour will come to a close in Florida, with concerts organized in cities across the state on Oct. 8.
Sponsors of the tour include liberal organization such as MoveOn.org and America Coming Together. Tickets go on sale to the public on Saturday; presale tickets will be made available to members of MoveOn at an earlier date. Ticket prices have yet to be released.
Meanwhile, representatives for O’Grady declined to comment on how much the ophthalmologist from Long Island is spending on the anti-Springsteen spot in which she proposes that “it’s time to tame the liberal elite.”
The conservative Republican is lagging in the polls at presentmaybe she just wasn’t born to run?
