It’s not the “Party of Hope” right now as many embattled Democrats have gone negative.
U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell’s ads say his opponent in Arizona is “a predatory real-estate speculator” who is “hurting us, helping himself.” Congressman Ron Klein’s say his challenger has “a consistent lack of personal responsibility” and “the wrong values for South Florida.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s say his Nevada opponent is “reckless, radical and extreme.”
Many Democratic candidates, faced with running on accomplishments that haven’t been embraced by voters, are using a tested, if unsavory, tactic: attacking their opponents’ character, according to data provided by a new study.
The strategy of these Democrats is to turn the election from a referendum on their record into a choice — one where the other side is “too extreme,” a label that has become a common refrain in TV ads across the country.
An analysis of advertising by the Wesleyan Media Project shows that Democratic candidates are running a higher percentage of negative ads, and they are more likely to go after their opponents’ personal characteristics instead of their policy positions.
“Republicans are substantively more policy-focused,” said Michael Franz, a professor at Bowdoin College who worked on the study. “The policy environment really isn’t favorable to Democrats. Trying to run on that record just isn’t going to play that well.”
Data collected by the project show that 29 percent of Democratic House and Senate candidates’ ads are negative, up from 13 percent in 2008. By comparison, Republicans’ share of attack ads has dropped from 28 percent to 21 percent.
Further, 35 percent of the negative ads run by Democrats are focused exclusively on policy. By contrast, Republicans were focused exclusively on policy 57 percent of the time.
The data show Republican candidates have been able to run more positive ads because they have received help from parties and outside groups that are attacking on their behalf.
Once outside spending by parties and interest groups are factored into the candidate spending, both liberals and conservatives are running the same share of negative ads. Ads on the left are still more focused on personal characteristics over policy, however.
“The Democrats have essentially become a message-less party,” said Ken Spain, communications director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the GOP’s House-race arm. “They can’t run on their record of job creation or fiscal responsibility, so instead, they have resorted to character assassination.”
Democrats say their ads focus on personal characteristics because Republican candidates this year are especially flawed. Many of them, including Senate nominees such as Rand Paul in Kentucky and Sharron Angle in Nevada, were able to win primaries against more conventional politicians with the help of backing from the Tea Party.
“The public needs to know of these fatally flawed candidates’ disturbing history of dangerous rhetoric and extremist views,” Ryan Rudominer, a spokesman for the Democrats’ House-race committee, said. “It’s hardly surprising Republicans wouldn’t want the facts to come out.”
