This went up less than 24 hours ago, and it’s got some 40,000 views on Facebook so far – how many of those views were paid for by the Schroder campaign and how many were organic we don’t know – so far there are only 240 shares, but that’s what you’d imagine given that the video went up on Labor Day.

The press release just went out this morning…

Today,  John Schroder released his first web ad of the campaign titled John Schroder: My Story.

The five-minute biography highlights John and Ellie’s humble beginnings, John’sservice in the Army, where he served in military intelligence, and his time spent as a narcotics detective in the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Department. The video concludes with John’s time in the legislature and the principles that will guide him as state treasurer.

“I think it’s important that people know my story before casting their vote,” said Schroder. “I believe the way we handle our experiences – the good and the bad – defines who we are.  I’m proud to share my story with the people of Louisiana.”

Schroder leads all candidates with money raised and continues to best all Republican candidates in recent polling.

Not all recent polling, of course – there was a poll by JMC Analytics a couple of weeks ago which had Angele Davis as the top Republican, but the other candidates scoffed at its numbers and accused the Davis campaign of putting out a push-poll. The Hayride is considering doing an independent poll of the race to see where the candidates actually are.

The ad was produced in-house by Schroder’s campaign consultant Lionel Rainey, who has done video ads before but this is his first effort at doing so in a statewide race. It looks fairly clearly to be the case that the Schroder campaign is going to invest in more TV than the others in the race; this five-minute spot looks fairly certain to be cut down to a :30 or :60 spot for television and we’re told there are others in the pipeline as well. Davis and state Senator Neil Riser, who are the other major Republicans in the race, are also likely to be up on TV soon with today being the day after Labor Day and the campaign beginning in earnest.