A little taste of GOP campaign strategy (or, Would you vote for these men?)
There’s an election looming in Mississippi next week and in addition to the controversial Amendment 26 vote, there’s plenty of other positions, including the Governor’s mansion, up for grabs.
As a result campaign advertising both in the mailbox and on TV has increased significantly over the last couple of weeks. Some of it is very interesting and gives a glimpse into what we’ll be seeing nationwide come next year.
We start with a mailout from the Mississippi GOP asking us to pick our side:
Note at the bottom, in addition to the talking point inspired bullet points, it identifies the sides as “Liberal Democrats” and “Conservative Republicans”. I’m not sure you would have seen something as blatant as that in the past.
Moving on we have a mailer for the GOP candidate for Governor, Phil Bryant:
Look at the list and count how many regurgitated talking points you see. They are all there in their incredible glory. Remember, this is a mailout on BEHALF of the candidate, this is supposed to make the recipient WANT to vote for him.
And what do we have next? It’s Phil Bryant again, this time urging us to vote Yes on 26 and end abortion statewide:
Shockingly (or perhaps not), the front side of this card is pretty much a straight out attack on Planned Parenthood and their criticism of 26.
Moving on, we have an attack ad from Steve Simpson, GOP candidate for Attorney General. This thing is unbelievable:
Not only does this ad (not surprisingly) paint Obama as scary and dangerous, it also seeks to presemt Obama/Hood as a kind of fictional Democratic ticket as in, “A vote for Jim Hood is a vote for Obama”
Not that these kinds of attacks are uncommon in politics, but I am noticing moreso than in the past, candidates are attempting to tie local candidates to federal politicians, especially by way of labeling every Democrat as someone who loves Obama as a scare tactic.
I promised myself that if I ever run for office, I will NOT run any attack ads. I don’t care if I don’t get elected. I’d rather use my marketing messages to highlight my policy plans rather than attack my opponent.
As I said, this is a small taste of what will fill our mailboxes and our airwaves throughout next year. And it’s going to get nastier. A LOT nastier.