Negative campaign ads: truth or low blows?
A day after unleashing advertisements that portray his opponent as an extremist, Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet called for cleaner campaigns and the end of partisan bickering.
During a campaign stop in Colorado Springs on Friday, Bennet said today’s children deserve a brighter future removed from political polarization.
“We need to construct a politics that’s worthy of them,” he said.
Of the ad slamming Republican Senate hopeful Ken Buck that started airing a few hours earlier, Bennet said the truth is not an attack, and Buck threw the first punch.
“Unfortunately, that’s the kind of campaign he started,” Bennet said of Buck.
In the Senate campaign, both camps have accused their opponents of low blows. Both sides are tattooing the other with labels, too.
Colorado voters should probably expect more, said Robert Loevy, a Colorado College political science professor.
“That’s an opening volley and what will be a long war,” Loevy said.
It’s not unexpected. Political ads slamming opponents have been the norm for decades.
“It’s campaign season,” said Republican El Paso County Commissioner Sallie Clark, who attended the Bennet event as an observer rather than a supporter.
Add in the faltering economy and wedge issues such as health care reform and immigration, and the environment for negative campaigning has seldom been more ripe.
“We’re in a polarized climate,” said Bennet-backer Kevan Worley.
Buck, the Weld County prosecutor, has gone after Bennet as a rubber-stamp for Democrats and a puppet of President Barack Obama.
The GOP issued a statement on Friday calling Bennet a “left-wing extremist.”
Bennet’s new advertisement focuses on statements Buck made at GOP events by using often-grainy video images that show him voicing what the ad portrays as extremist views.
Bennet took precautions to make sure his statements didn’t wind up in the wrong hands during his talk at the Hillside Community Center to a standing-room crowd.
Signs dotted the entrances to the venue forbidding video or audio recording. Bennet campaign staffers cautioned several people during the talk to turn off recording devices. Bennet workers also confronted two men who oppose Bennet when they tried to question the senator in view of a small video camera when the event ended.
Staffers stuck their hands in front of the camera’s lens.
Loevy said the paranoia over video cameras is evident in most campaigns and is a symptom of the Internet.
A political slip of the tongue that would have blown over a decade ago now can spread like wildfire if it has been recorded.
“You put it on YouTube and the whole world can see it,” Loevy said. “Something bad about you can be e-mailed to everybody else in the country.”
Meanwhile, Bennet is campaigning across Colorado, calling for an end to name-calling and “the divisive political stuff.”
“What we need are people who will listen to anyone’s ideas,” Bennet told the campaign crowd.
WHAT ABOUT HICKENLOOPER?
Gubernatorial hopeful John Hickenlooper, Denver’s Democratic mayor, has made a splash this campaign season with a pair of humorous and positive television advertisements.
One portrays him taking repeated showers after watching negative political ads.
Colorado College political science professor Robert Loevy said Hickenlooper has two big reasons to hit the high road and stay there:
First, his opponents — third-party candidate Tom Tancredo and Republican Dan Maes — are trailing in the polls, leaving Hickenlooper little reason to light them up with attack ads.
Second, Maes and Tancredo don’t have big campaign funds and aren’t expected to run many television advertisements for Hickenlooper to counter.
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