Michael Bennet, "Wake Up"
In an election season during which "Washington insider" was one of the top barbs of choice, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet went to great lengths in his campaign ads to place himself far outside the Beltway morass. Against the backdrop of the snowy Rockies and sporting a casual, open-collar look, Bennet opens this ad by saying, "I've been in Washington only a year," before ticking off a list of populist reforms he'd like to see in D.C. Despite having never won elected office before — he was appointed in January 2009 to fill the Senate seat left vacant when President Obama tapped Ken Salazar to serve as Secretary of the Interior — Bennet successfully fought off tough anti-Establishment challenges in both the primary and general elections. He may have portrayed himself as a novice, but this ad suggests that Bennet had all the political savvy of a grizzled veteran.