There comes a time in every runoff, even the heinously long ones, where you’ve just got to go negative. It’s not fun, but when two candidates share a party and a platform puffing yourself up isn’t going to move the polls a whole lot. So here we are, three weeks before the election, and our candidates all across the state are ‘highlighting one another’s differences’ in their last ditch efforts to win votes. And let me tell you, as a campaign observer nothing could be more entertaining.
So here’s your one stop shop for all things mean, dirty, low-down and cruel.
Let’s start with the marquee race of the Summer, that for U.S. Senate.
In this internet age we live in it makes too much sense to devote a website to blasting your opponent, so of course that’s what our Senate hopefuls have done. www.phonyperdue.com is a Cracked-style list site with Gen-X friendly memes laying out all the ways Perdue is a ‘phony’. Not to be outdone, the Perdue camp has 22years.com, a more mature angle which highlights Kingston’s (22 year) career in D.C. and lays out why ‘insiders’ are bad and ‘outsiders’ are good.
Runoffs are dominated by the party base though, and in this case, that means voters who slant a bit older. And how do you reach voters who slant a bit older? Well with good old-old fashioned ad-buys of course!
Here is Perdue’s first attack ad, which features the same line of ‘insider vs outsider’ that was so prevalent on his website. A pretty standard ad, but an effective one in pushing his message, that; ‘Jack Kingston has been in Washington for a long, long time, and we know you don’t like that. Also, I wear denim. And lots of it. And I know that’s what you want to see in your next Senator.
Kingston’s attacks have been a bit more imaginative, especially this one featuring a Barack Obama impersonator singing Perdue’s praises. The quality is a far cry from Kingston’s old ‘station wagon’ ads, maybe he’d better stay on the offensive while letting the U.S. Chamber, (and Herschel Walker) pump him up.
The race for CD 11 has perhaps been the testiest race on social media, with supporters of both Bob Barr and Barry Loudermilk repeatedly locking horns in contests that seem to be getting more and more feisty the closer to July 22nd we get. Loudermilk first received criticism for embellishing his military record, a claim to which he responded by releasing his military resume. Of course, the Barr camp isn’t going to let the issue just blow over.
Barr himself has seen that pesky ‘flip-flopper’ label come back around in the runoff as he changed his stance on e-verify, (from anti- to pro-) merely days after responding to our friend D.A. King’s immigration survey. That, paired with his questionable support/opposition to Eric Holder, and of course the whole party-swapping thing, gives Loudermilk supporters plenty of ammunition as the war continues across the bloody Facebook and Twitter battlefields.
Expect more fireworks as the candidates pump up their tv/radio time in coming weeks.
Not to be outdone, the race to replace U.S. Rep. Paul Broun in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District has seen its own share of controversy. Jody Hice has drawn the ire of liberals, moderates, the right, and rational people everywhere with his stances on social issues, inspiring such amazing backlash as the video below.
That video is funny, but the stuff Hice has been saying is not. A seemingly unending series of gaffes, (at least I hope they’re gaffes and not the ramblings of a crazy person) have made Hice into one of those rare candidates who inspires opposition just by existing. Whether it’s accusing the gay community of a secret plot to recruit and sodomize children or making the rather offensive claim that Muslims don’t deserve 1st Amendment protection, Hice has managed to stir up enough ill will that I’m surprised Stephen Colbert and co. haven’t set up a PAC to get the man elected just for the jokes that would surely follow his swearing into office.
Hice’s opponent, Mike Collins, actually lost to Hice in the primary by a handful of votes, but the endorsement of Rick Santorum on Monday should hopefully show the social conservatives in his district that they will still have a voice if a slightly less extreme candidate should represent them in D.C.
Expect the next three weeks to feature increasingly nasty ads, mailers, emails, and press releases. Expect supporters to carry on the fight over social media, and expect radio hosts to start frothing at the mouth a little bit as they try to puff up ‘their guy’. Just remember to take everything you see and hear with a grain of salt, and try not to take anything too seriously. It’s just politics, after all. And remember that for as negative as things get here in July, it’s going to be nothing compared to the general elections where the candidates actually disagree.
