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Those spontaneous conversations candidates are always having with constituents in their ads? They take some serious planning.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Voters across the country are being flooded this month with campaign ads, extolling the deep local roots of members of Congress.

There’s the Colorado commercial featuring Rep. Ed Permutter knocking on doors and chatting with constituents, and an ad of Democrat Brendan Mullen jogging home in his South Bend, Indiana district. And there’s Andy Barr’s ad “Devastating” ad, featuring what appear to be coal miners from his eastern Kentucky district accusing his opponent of crippling the coal industry.

But the conversations are staged. That's not his house. And that guy isn't a miner.

The candidates hail from different parties and different regions but one thing their ads, and many others, have in common is just how much stagecraft goes into the political quest for homegrown authenticity.

Take Permutter’s ad, “Ed is Walking the Extra Mile,” which features footage of the lawmaker climbing out his car, knocking on doors, chatting with folks on the street and generally doing the classic legwork of any good retail politics operation.

The video even includes the disclaimer “NOT AN ACTOR: This is actually Congressman Permutter.” Which is true.

But the seemingly spontaneous interactions in the ad are anything but, as the excerpts from the video shoot show, with Permutter and constituents doing multiple takes.

“They’re real people he talked to at their doors,” campaign spokeswoman Leslie Oliver said, explaining that the camera crew would ask for permission [to shoot] … they would set that up, but they were real doors he was knocking on and they weren’t pre-planned.”

Oliver said the campaign posted the out takes on youtube as a "repository" during production of the ad.

But in at least one case, shown at the 1:05 mark of the ad, the person the lawmaker seems to spontaneously meet on the street isn’t just a constituent – but a campaign volunteer, Oliver acknowledged.

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