These ads may have kept Mitt Romney out of the senate, but eight years later Shannon O’Brien ran virtually identical ads and got beaten by Romney for the governorship in the same state. Partially because O’Brien was a weak candidate, but also because Romney had the "Olympic turnaround" (something of an embellishment) to tout and negate largely the effect of these ads about Ampad. It’s an arrow in a campaign vs. Romney, but not the dagger in his political heart.
In a Republic party primary, screwing working people is an asset on your resume.
And they still convince working people to vote for them. Stupid working people, that is.