2008 Woodie Awards
Negative advertising shakes another election
Gavin Jamieson, Staff Writer
Issue date: 11/14/06
Last Updated: 12/26/07
The 2006 mid-term election produced a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate, and was also unfortunately marked with a vast amount of negative campaign advertisements. These advertisements attempted to destroy the reputation of either the Democrat or Republican running for office. It has been shown that these ads were effective in influencing the outcome of races.
The Washington Post reported that the House race in Pennsylvania's 4th District was decided not by an excessive amount of negative campaign ads, but instead by how the Republican incumbent waited too long to begin airing attack ads. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took credit for a final-week advertising push in Kentucky which allowed John Yarmuth to defeat the Republican incumbent in the House of Representatives. These races are reflective of the limited amount of funding available for both the Republican and Democratic campaigns and the careful strategies that must be employed to avoid spending money on futile races and to take advantage of character weaknesses voters might find interesting.
The present state of negative campaigning reflects a widespread acceptance of the practice by the general public and has created widespread voter disgust. It cannot be denied that if a candidate was able to completely do without the use of negative ads, he may as well forego the use of American flags during speeches, as both mudslinging and patriotism have become necessary for any serious political candidate. There was a time in American politics when this was not the case, as demonstrated in 1884 when Grover Cleveland was running for the presidency for the first time.
Cleveland had been characterized as an honest man, and this was further during his campaign when he admitted the existence of an illegitimate child which had been brought to the public light by supporters of his opponent, James Blaine. This incident caused great embarrassment to Cleveland as it was a private matter he had not expected to come to light.
The Washington Post reported that the House race in Pennsylvania's 4th District was decided not by an excessive amount of negative campaign ads, but instead by how the Republican incumbent waited too long to begin airing attack ads. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took credit for a final-week advertising push in Kentucky which allowed John Yarmuth to defeat the Republican incumbent in the House of Representatives. These races are reflective of the limited amount of funding available for both the Republican and Democratic campaigns and the careful strategies that must be employed to avoid spending money on futile races and to take advantage of character weaknesses voters might find interesting.
The present state of negative campaigning reflects a widespread acceptance of the practice by the general public and has created widespread voter disgust. It cannot be denied that if a candidate was able to completely do without the use of negative ads, he may as well forego the use of American flags during speeches, as both mudslinging and patriotism have become necessary for any serious political candidate. There was a time in American politics when this was not the case, as demonstrated in 1884 when Grover Cleveland was running for the presidency for the first time.
Cleveland had been characterized as an honest man, and this was further during his campaign when he admitted the existence of an illegitimate child which had been brought to the public light by supporters of his opponent, James Blaine. This incident caused great embarrassment to Cleveland as it was a private matter he had not expected to come to light.
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