Five negative campaign ads that backfired

Conservative Intel ^ | 5/15/2014 | David Freddoso

[The Old Hoosier]

People complain about negative advertising, but campaigns do it because it works. Well -- at least it works when it's done well. Here are five examples where negative ads backfired.

1

In the current Pennsylvania gubernatorial primary, Rob McCord recently released an ad attacking the frontrunner, Tom Wolf, for his support of former York Mayor Charlie Robertson. last decade, Robertson was charged (and acquitted) for his role in York's 1969 race riots, during which Robertson had been a policeman. Since the ad came out, Wolf's numbers have actually spiked and he's considered the easy favorite to win next Tuesday.

[WATCH VIDEO]

2

Pete Ricketts just became the Nebraska GOP's nominee for governor this week. But in 2006, running against Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Ricketts accused the senator of cheating on his taxes. This highly annoying 60-second ad, which is kind of amusing in retrospect, didn't go over well with voters at all.

[WATCH VIDEO]

Ricketts was clobbered in this race, despite outspending Nelson nearly two-to-one.

3

You may already recognize this next one. Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, D, was losing late in his 2010 Senate bid against Rand Paul, R. So he went nuclear with this ad, apparently aiming at persuadable religious voters with little education. It ended up turning what seemed like a relatively close race into a blowout for Paul:

[WATCH VIDEO]

4

Michael Arcuri, D, was District Attorney of Oneida County. While traveling on official business, he tried to place a phone call to the state Department of Criminal Justice Services from his hotel room. He dialed one digit wrong and instead got a sex chat line, which charged him $1.25 for a one minute call.

He later submitted his hotel bill for reimbursement, putting his mistaken phone call on the public record. When Arcuri ran for an open seat in Congress in 2006, the NRCC came in with this inflammatory negative ad about what was almost certainly an innocent incident -- and of course it totally backfired. Arcuri was elected:

[WATCH VIDEO]

5

The relatively conservative Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., was at one point favored to survive the 2010 tsunami. One reason was that he had plenty of material to work with in the opposition file of his Republican opponent, Dr. Scott DesJarlais. But give enough rope to a pol in campaign mode, and he'll hang himself. This ad, with the spooky voice and dramatic music, was just way too much, even if the allegations are backed up by court papers. It probably guaranteed Davis' loss.

[WATCH VIDEO]

[Responsibility2nd]

Plenty of FReepers howled with disgust when Karl Rove went negative with the “Brain Damage” remark.

But guess what? IT WORKED. When you have even Bill Clinton reacting as he did (My wife does not have brain damage, so there!), then you know that remark struck a nerve.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Rob McCord:

In hindsight, maybe not such a good idea to focus your attack on ONE incident in a city of 40,000 that happened 45 years ago.

Not in a statewide race anyhow.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Biggest problem for Republicans and Conservatives:

Our opponents, time and time again, are able to successfully portray us to LIV’s (particularly the female ones) as “mean”.

It’s why Romney lost (dog-abusing cancer-spreading job exporter)

It’s why Rick Santorum is racing to embrace a fifteen dollar minimum wage.

After Rove says that, if it turns out she really DOES have a brain tumor, her condition gets worse or she dies, the Left and their media sychophants will absolutely lambaste us.

THAT is why I think what Rove did was incredibly dumb.

[Responsibility2nd]

After Rove says that, if it turns out she really DOES have a brain tumor, her condition gets worse or she dies, the Left and their media sychophants will absolutely lambaste us.

_________________________________________________

Your “what if” scenario is a real stretch. But I’ll play along.

What if you say is true and it all these things do happen. Hillary is no longer the front runner and heir-apparent as the 2016 winner. That leaves a field of nobodies (Biden, Warren, etc) scrambling too late for position. That leaves the Republican as the winner.

So how is this a bad thing?

[Political Junkie Too]

How about Alan Grayson's Taliban Dan ad?

Sure, he lost and won again in a future race.

-PJ

[mosesdapoet]

In the Bloggers & Personal forum, on a thread titled Five negative campaign ads that backfired, Responsibility2nd wrote:
Plenty of FReepers howled with disgust when Karl Rove went negative with the “Brain Damage” remark.
But guess what? IT WORKED. When you have even Bill Clinton reacting as he did (My wife does not have brain damage, so there!), then you know that remark struck a nerve

Read those about Rove postings in FR’s but declined any comment. I think Rove, whom I hold in complete contempt, stumbled into it. Bubba over reacted and went into detail imdicating she is having problems. Which was a complete surprize. But whether that may affect her candidacy is certainly not the main reason why she shouldn’t even be considered.

What’s interesting are other shifting center remarks by Bubba that show a drift away from Obama . A cue that there’s internal trouble brewing within the democratic party that the GOPES (gop elite snobs) aren’t picking up on .

The democrat (in name only) party should be hammered for their accelerated pace in changing the culture of this country particularly their emphasis placed on separation of race and values but are literaly getting away with murder.
Which guys like Rove and that whole bunch running the show leave unscathed,and seem more determined to protect their fiefdoms.
What should we be doing and failed to do?
http://www.theusmat.com/