By Carter Bundy
Can politics ever mean too much? Maybe. Sometimes the desire to win — not only by the candidate, but by his or her supporters — leads to two types of negative attacks that reflect more poorly on the attacker than the target. Strangely, these attacks seem even more common during primaries than in general elections.
Personal prevarications
The first types of attack are personal smears. We’ve all seen what’s happened to Ben Ray this year (who, by way of disclaimer, my union endorsed). First, as a general point, I’m more than a little disappointed that the universal consensus seems to be that an openly gay or lesbian candidate can’t win in the north, at least not across the entire upper third of the state.
Smarter and more experienced folks than I have all made that assessment, and I think that’s unfortunate to say the least. There ought to be more voices pointing out that being gay is not, or should not be, a negative.
Second, and more relevant to the immediate case, there is zero evidence — zero — backing up Benny Shendo’s allegations. Shendo’s a guy languishing far behind in a congressional race who thought it more important to make outlandish accusations and personal attacks (again, I don’t think the substance should be considered an attack, but it is what it is) than to put forward an agenda of how he can make life better for residents of the 3rd CD.
Off-the-wall personal attacks aren’t limited to Dems. Maybe the single nastiest political attack in our lifetime came when George Bush — yes, the president — launched false, racist attacks on John McCain’s adopted little girl in the South Carolina primary.
It spoke volumes about the character of W, his staff and the Republican primary voters of
Spinning records
The second type of bad negative campaigning has also been on display in CD 3 — twisting professional records. Don Wiviott, when he was the only one willing to stand up against Saint Pete in the Senate race, was widely hailed as a green developer.
But now that Don’s in the mix for a hotly contested congressional seat, he’s been recast by some — including some Ben Ray supporters — as a cutthroat, greenwashing developer. I don’t believe it for a second, and neither did anyone else until this primary.
Anyone who is in business or politics for long enough is going to have some scuffles that can be spun badly. That’s what this looks like here.
Of course, Don has given as good as he’s gotten. Blasting Ben Ray for PRC rate increases that Ben Ray voted against is twisting facts at its most obvious.
Our two Republican Representatives in DC have shown an adeptness at this type of phony spin as well. Heather Wilson a Pelosi Dem? Yeah, I wish. Steve Pearce a child-hating monster? Probably not. But 527s and even the campaigns are going down that road, and it’s only helping to lock down the seat for Mr. Clean, Tom Udall.
Policies be damned
Many of the same points could be made about this year’s presidential primary. A mere eight years ago, Hillary Clinton was almost uniformly admired by progressives as the woman who had valiantly fought against the insurance industry, Republicans and conservative Democrats to try to bring the United States into the ranks of the developed world on the issue of health care.
But then she ran against an exciting, inspirational guy who, to his credit, was a very vocal critic of any military action against
Suddenly Hillary was a tool of the insurance industry, or a continuation of the Bush status quo, or racist, or part of a right-wing evangelical attempt to take over the world (I’m not kidding – “progressives” really said stuff like that).
This all despite the fact that, other than the war, her proposals and policies were identical to or more liberal than Obama’s.
Likewise, some Hillary supporters jumped all over statements made by acquaintances of Obama’s, including the Rev. Wright, as evidence that Obama must hate
Obama has endured horrible personal attacks on his patriotism, faith and other values based on hearsay, ignorance, speculation and the words and deeds of others. The Hillary supporters who played those cards may have won a few skirmishes, but in the 6-month primary season turned off plenty of voters, deservedly so.
Primarily primaries
The weirdest part of all this is that it seems that primaries are even worse than general elections. Yes, John Kerry was the original Swiftboat victim, but somehow general elections seem to be less personal and more factual.
Even in the Swiftboat ‘04 general, the major points of argument were Iraq, Social Security, terrorism, health care, deficits, taxes and other significant substantive issues.
There’s a reason. Primaries, in either party, are often between candidates with similar philosophical and policy perspectives. So the only way campaigns believe they can distinguish themselves is by casting aspersions on the ethics or personality of the other candidate(s), or by spinning records.
Pointing out differences in background, in careers, in policy proposals, and examining voting records are all fair game, even if doing so is negative about the opponent. Making up personal attacks or lying about voting records is something campaigns in both parties should be above.
The main reason they’re not? People get desperate to win and think it works. The only way to stop it is to punish smear and spin candidates in the voting booth.
Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME in