Negative ads

[Cleon]

Negative campaigning does not always work.

In Iowa about six years ago, there was a heated race for governor. In the last few weeks of the campaign, one of the candidates, who held a significant lead in the polls, started running negative ads, saying his opponent was in favor of (gasp!) nude dancing in the state.

The voters held this ad against the candidate who ran it. He lost his lead, and lost the race for the governor's office.

Or maybe people took it seriously and really wanted to keep nude dancing.

 

[Meadmaker]

Uh-Oh. Better not look at the front page of the RNC right now:
http://www.rnc.org/

"Flippercam" seems a bit childish, with the dolphin picture and all, but actually, I don't mind their stuff so much. It's issue oriented.

If John Kerry "flips", then that's an issue. I don't see anything wrong with bringing it to public attention. I don't find it persuasive, but it doesn't make me angry.

There are two kinds of negative ads that bother me. One is the muckraking sort, where people dig dirt on the opponent, especially in his personal life. The "Fortunate Son" is an example. Although they aren't ads, I was disgusted by Kitty Kelly and everything having to do with charges related to Bill Clinton's sex life as well.

The second kind of ad that bothers me is one that so distorts someone's record that reasonable people would say that candidate A was lying about candidate B. One variation of this that really gets my goat is one that shows a candidate with a hated public figure, and suggests that they are good friends. So the "Here is John Kerry sitting next to Jane Fonda" stuff really bothers me.

The "Al-Qaeda wants Kerry to win" ads are pretty sick, too, but at least there's a legitimate issue somewhere down there, if you wipe the slime off the top.

 

[Snide]

Negative campaigning does not always work.

In Iowa about six years ago, there was a heated race for governor. In the last few weeks of the campaign, one of the candidates, who held a significant lead in the polls, started running negative ads, saying his opponent was in favor of (gasp!) nude dancing in the state.

The voters held this ad against the candidate who ran it. He lost his lead, and lost the race for the governor's office.

Funny stuff.

I lived in Iowa for four years. Saw Governor Branstedt(sp?) win because his opponent was against the death penalty.

The slimy campaign won, yet AFAIK, Iowa still has no death penalty.

 

[Snide]

Negative campaigning does not always work.

In Iowa about six years ago, there was a heated race for governor. In the last few weeks of the campaign, one of the candidates, who held a significant lead in the polls, started running negative ads, saying his opponent was in favor of (gasp!) nude dancing in the state.

The voters held this ad against the candidate who ran it. He lost his lead, and lost the race for the governor's office.

Funny stuff.

I lived in Iowa for four years. Saw Governor Branstedt(sp?) win because his opponent was against the death penalty.

The slimy campaign won, yet AFAIK, Iowa still has no death penalty.

 

[Skeptic]

Negative campaigning does not always work.

In Iowa about six years ago, there was a heated race for governor. In the last few weeks of the campaign, one of the candidates, who held a significant lead in the polls, started running negative ads, saying his opponent was in favor of (gasp!) nude dancing in the state.

The voters held this ad against the candidate who ran it. He lost his lead, and lost the race for the governor's office.

This one has so many joke possibilities I don't know where to start.

AD: "My opponent will allow nude dancing..."

VOTER: "Cool! What's the guy's name again? I should remember to vote for him--always wanted nude dancing close to home... "

POLLSTER: "Mr. Voter, you are one of the many who changed their vote after the infamous 'nude dancing' ad aired. Care to give your reasons?"

VOTER (clears throat): "Well, er, I just didn't like all the negative campaigning!"

 

[Brown]

I lived in Iowa for four years. Saw Governor Branstedt(sp?) win because his opponent was against the death penalty.

The slimy campaign won, yet AFAIK, Iowa still has no death penalty.

Governor Terry Branstad (a Republican) was in office for 16 years, longer than any Iowa governor. To this day, I do not see the appeal of the guy. In my first two jobs after graduate school, I worked as an employee for the State of Iowa. Throughout that time, I had to listen to the governor bad-mouth the work of state employees. It was, of course, very popular to insult government "bureaucrats"; but imagine what it would do to YOUR morale to hear the chief executive of your company bad-mouth everything the company's employees were doing.

Branstad is perhaps best "known" for a race in which he, as an incumbent, got challenged for his party's nomination by congressman Fred "Gopher" Grandy. Appearance-wise, Branstad looked a lot like Stan Marsh's father.

Branstad was not above slinging mud, but those who challenged him generally had too much good taste to sling mud back. For example, Branstad's teenage son was repeatedly convicted of underage drinking and subsequently killed two people with his car (and I believe he did no time for it, even though he was clearly at fault). No one ever suggested in a campaign, however, that Branstad was an unfit parent.