Campaign gets dirty .Avalanche of TV air time.
Jan Cienski National Psst
Saturday, November 02, 2002
Comment : This type campaigning would not work in this country.As a matter of fact, it would work against the candidate who initiated it in many cases.The only negative campaigning you usually see is when they are attacking the other’s policies or past records etc.Very seldom personal attacks are used. Hint. <g>
WASHINGTON - In a mid-term election likely to end in a photo finish, candidates across the United States long ago turned to what is widely regarded as their most reliable political ally: the negative campaign ad.
Though in pursuit of high office, the tone of the race has been decidedly low-brow. Candidates routinely smear their opponents with allegations -- or perhaps just insinuations -- of criminal behaviour, adultery, homosexuality and, when nothing better is at hand, plain old hypocrisy.
In Texas, where Rick Perry, the Republican Governor and George W. Bush's replacement, is trying to defeat millionaire oilman Tony Sanchez, the Republican candidate unleashed an ad featuring two agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration trying to link Mr. Sanchez to the 1985 murder of a DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in Mexico.
"The same drug dealers who killed Kiki laundered millions in drug money through Tony Sanchez's banks," says one agent in the ad. Although an investigation showed that money from Mexican drug gangs was laundered through a bank owned by Mr. Sanchez, he has denied knowing anything about it. In response, Mr. Sanchez called Mr. Perry "by far the most disgusting human being I have ever known."
In Wisconsin, Republican Governor Scott McCallum is running an ad accusing Democratic challenger Jim Doyle, the state Attorney-General, of buying votes at a senior citizens' bingo party with cookies, quarters and pop. "Let's face it," says the ad, which was pulled for rewording after a fuss broke out, "when Wisconsin's top cop is crooked, you don't elect him governor."
In Oklahoma, Republican Senator Jim Inhofe is in a race against David Walters, a former governor who left office after pleading no contest to charges of accepting illegal campaign donations, and Mr. Inhofe is showing no mercy.
His ad, played against a background of music from The Twilight Zone, goes: "Submitted for your approval. David Walters, disgraced ex-governor whose eight felony indictments and near-impeachment speak volumes. His funding comes from the likes of Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle, Bill Clinton and Mike Dukakis, friends of his who share a common liberal mindset, a mindset that makes no sense in Oklahoma and could only exist in the indictment zone."
In Montana, an ad Democrats say was aimed at Republican Mike Taylor's questionable business dealings has left them open to charges of gay baiting.
The ad, run by Democratic incumbent Max Baucus, shows Mr. Taylor in a 20-year-old video clip wearing a leisure suit open at the neck to display his hairy chest and gold chains while he gives another man a facial. The clip is from a TV show for Mr. Taylor's beauty school, a business that turned him into a millionaire.
In Montana, where real men are supposed to look like the Marlboro Man, the subtext was obvious.
Mr. Taylor quit the race, denying he was a crooked gay hairdresser, only to re-enter after 12 days, this time running as a no-hope, anti-negative campaign candidate.
In Arkansas, incumbent Republican Senator Tim Hutchinson is in big trouble because the family values former Baptist minister divorced his wife of 29 years and married a former Senate aide.
His Democratic opponent Mark Pryor has been careful to avoid direct statements about his rival's embarrassing situation. Instead, he has run commercials presenting himself as a religious man, reading the Bible and sitting with his family.
In Georgia, Republican Saxby Chambliss is questioning the patriotism of Senator Max Cleland, his Democratic opponent, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam. One ad features a picture of Osama bin Laden as it denounces Mr. Cleland for failing to support the President's legislation creating a new Homeland Security Department.
What makes this campaign more striking is the amount of money being poured into it. In some states every minute of available commercial time has been bought, forcing viewers to digest an unremitting diet of political punches.
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