New Campaign Ads Have a Theme: Don't Be Nice

NEW CAMPAIGN ADS HAVE A THEME: DON'T BE NICE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Adam Nagourney]
Republicans and Democrats began showing at least 30 new campaign advertisements in contested House and Senate districts across the country on Tuesday. Of those, three were positive. For Republicans, it was the leading edge of a wave of negative advertisements against Democratic candidates, the product of more than a year of research into the personal and professional backgrounds of Democratic challengers. For Democrats, it was part of a barrage intended to tie Republican incumbents to an unpopular Congress, criticize their voting records, portray them as captives to special interests and highlight embarrassing moments from their business histories. The result of the dueling accusations has been what both sides described on Tuesday as the most toxic midterm campaign environment in memory. It is a jarring blend of shadowy images, breathless announcers, jagged music and a dizzying array of statistics, counterstatistics and vote citations — all intended to present the members of Congress and their challengers in the worst possible light. Democratic and Republican strategists said they expected over 90 percent of the advertisements to be broadcast by Nov. 7 to be negative.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/27/us/politics/27ads.html?hp&ex=1159416000&en=541a271f4c216c55&ei=5094&partner=homepage
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