Democrats are outspending Republicans in the election wars -- we got five of their fliers in the mail today, plus a robocall from Rep. Scott Murphy, and nothing from the GOP side. The most effective flier was one on ethics from Andrew Cuomo, and the least effective an attack on Murphy's Republican opponent, Chris Gibson, from the New York State Democratic Committee.
There is a perfectly reasonable case to be made on taxes for Murphy and against Gibson, one I actually agree with. Murphy, like President Obama, supports extending the Bush tax cuts for most Americans, but not for the wealthy. Gibson opposes raising income taxes on anyone, and has signed a pledge to that effect. The flier from the New York State Democratic Committee says Gibson "signed a pledge and promised to protect every special interest corporate tax break for companies that have shipped our jobs overseas," when of course the pledge in question did not say anything about those issues. It just committed him (wisely or unwisely) to opposing tax increases.
Prior Democratic attacks specified China as the place where Gibson allegedly wants to ship our jobs to, echoing Republican candidate Jim Tedisco's ads last year in which he blasted Murphy for investing (as a private businessman) in India, and implied that's where he wanted to ship American jobs. The notion that any American politician is running for the express purpose of shipping jobs overseas is so stupid and dishonest that it's hardly surprising Murphy gained votes the more people saw Tedisco's negative ads, while Gibson is now gaining support the more people see Murphy's. This is in fact a hopeful sign that the voters are smarter than the campaign committees.
Attack ads only work on politicians, like Tedisco then and Murphy now, who have actual records. When you try them on neophytes you come up with this ridiculous kind of India-China stuff which voters can see through for the cynical dreck it is. (Unfortunately, there are much worse examples of sleazy, gutter politics this campaign cycle, such as this disgusting smear against the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in New York, and the highly publicized Gawker story about the Republican Senate candidate in Delaware.)
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