Pulse: Politics: Odd Men In

Local Republicans doing some soul-­searching after last month’s election can take solace: There are at least two reasons to be ­optimistic — Chris Mottola and Craig Snyder.

Mottola and Snyder were the consultants responsible for one of the most talked-about campaign commercials of the year: Bucks County Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick’s “Honest” spot, which ran during his losing effort against baby-faced challenger Patrick Murphy. The spot simply replayed a clip of Murphy’s appearance on Chris Matthews’s MSNBC shout-fest Hardball, during which the young Democrat was unable to answer whether he would have voted in favor of sending troops to Iraq (despite the fact he served there). Who woulda thought? Chris Matthews: Secret Weapon.

Mottola and Snyder declined to take credit for keeping the race close in an abysmal year for Republicans, but others are happy to gush: “It was one of the two or three best ads in the country this year,” says Democratic consultant Neil Oxman. “Just fucking brilliant.”