Flashback: New York City Sharks

Here’s that decade-old shark ad I referenced earlier, in which the New York Republican State Committee told upstate voters that “Sheldon Silver and the New York City Democrats just picked a New York City liberal for every major statewide office.”

And they’re going to tax and spend, the ad says. While the ad only names Sheldon Silver, it was a not-so-veiled effort to protect Republican Senator Al D'Amato from his Democratic challenger that year, then-congressman Chuck Schumer.

The regional appeal is similar -- in spirit, at least -- to the plea Republican State Senate Leader Dean Skelos made in his letter to upstate billionaire Tom Golisano - who says he’ll spend $5 million in this year’s legislative races. While Skelos is from Long Island which, technically, is part of the downstate region, he notes in his letter that at least he’s not from New York City.

The ad, which was made by Mercury Public Affairs, L.L.C., was (very kindly) sent over to me by a reader. I wouldn't have found it otherwise: It ran briefly in 1998, and was too distant an event for the institutional memory even of the mighty YouTube. Any other good, pre-YouTube ads out there collecting dust next to your rotary phones?