Jerry Kilgore

Jerry Kilgore is currently running a series of ads in the Virginia gubernatorial race attacking Tim Kaine's stance on the death penalty. They feature Stanley Rosenbluth, whose son and daughter-in-law Richard and Rebecca Rosenbluth, were murdered by Mark Sheppard, and Kelly Timbrook, whose husband Ricky was murdered by Edward Bell. Both ads show the bereaved sitting against a black backdrop talking about their lost loved ones saying they don't trust Tim Keane on the death penalty before the end of the ad where Kilgore sidles into the screen with a rather creepy looking shot that only shows one half of his face lit.

I think Kilgore in this situation is playing on white southern fear of black men. Sheppard and Bell were both black, although they're not shown in the ads. However, I would guess that these were high profile enough cases though that people remember them. Why else would you use them?

What the ads basically say are, "Hey whitey, Jerry Kilgore will protect you from darkie, even if you're a junkie," which the Rosenbluth's were.