In Ads, Democratic Candidates Play Down Party (even in NY!)

NY Times ^ | October 4, 2010 | DAVID W. CHEN

[neverdem]

One New York Democrat proclaims that he proudly opposed the federal government’s health care overhaul plan. Another one pledges, in the finest Tea Party spirit, to oppose any future financial bailouts. Still another has rolled out three Republicans in three separate commercials, all vouching for his credentials.

But there is one word you will not hear mentioned in any of these campaign advertisements: Democrat.

With the Democratic Party bracing for a dismal showing in the elections next month, many candidates are doing everything possible to convince voters that they are not tied at the hip to President Obama or Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker...

--snip--

And in central New York, Richard Hanna, a businessman, lumps images of his opponent, Representative Michael Arcuri, with Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada. He expresses outrage over Congressional spending and flashes his credentials as “Republican. Independent.”

Democrats in New York may have been telegraphing their aversion to their traditional party brand this summer at their state convention in Rye Brook, when hundreds of banners heralded the arrival of the “New Democratic Party.”

Since then, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, the party’s standard-bearer, has assiduously eschewed any mention of the word Democrat in his advertisements for governor — unless you count those citing Mr. Cuomo’s prosecutorial efforts against Democrats and Republicans.

Mr. Cuomo does lean, however, on J. Patrick Barrett, a former state Republican chairman, who says in an advertisement that Mr. Cuomo is the only candidate with “the ability, independence and guts to take on Albany’s special interests.”

“Sure, I’m a Republican,” Mr. Barrett adds. “But this year it can’t be about politics. It’s about fixing what’s broken.”

[neverdem]

J. Patrick Barrett is another weasel who validates my fear and/or distrust of folks who use the initialof their first name, then middle name and surname format. If they are uncomfortable with their given first name, then it's like they are uncomfortable with their own skin. I just don't trust them. Don't ask me why. It seems to me thay 9 out of 10 are phonies, IMHO.

[Undocumented_capitalist]

Danny Heck (D) running in WA-3 district is another rat hiding his democrat affiliation in every Ad, every road sign, every pamphlet.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

my fear and/or distrust of folks who use the initialof their first name, then middle name and surname format. If

That's traditional is some families; my father went by his middle name all his life, and raised my older brother to do the same.

Not that I consider it a good idea to confound the expectations of the general public with the name you give your child . . .

[Tawiskaro]

[fortheDeclaration]

You won’t find the word ‘Democrat’ anywhere on White’s ad’s in Texas.

[redhead]

This “inability” to advertise a candidate’s political affiliation has been the Standard Operating Procedure in Alaska for years. It is one of my absolute worst bugaboos. Conservatives have no problem announcing their party, but the liberals still hide theirs.