SC Ping
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Posted on 06/13/2004 3:48:37 AM PDT by doosee
Posted on Sun, Jun. 13, 2004
DeMint has first negative ad of runoff
By AARON GOULD SHEININ
Staff Writer
The first negative ad of the Republican U.S. Senate runoff campaign hit the airwaves Saturday, a spot that features two older gents arguing whether David Beasley is a “flip-flopper” or merely “wishy-washy.”
The ad, by the campaign of U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint, attacks Beasley over his changing positions on the Confederate flag and state lottery while he was governor from 1995-99.
“I don’t get this Beasley fella,” one man says to his friend. “He was against moving the flag; he’s for moving the flag. He was against the lottery vote, then he was for the lottery vote. Classic flip-flopper.”
His friend disagrees and says, “Sounds more wishy-washy to me.” And the two of them go back and forth.
Beasley’s campaign on Saturday was quick to paint the ad as the most negative and vicious of personal attacks.
“If we can’t trust Jim DeMint to keep his word about his own campaign, we have to be concerned about whether Jim DeMint would do what he’s promised to do in the Senate,” said Carroll Campbell III, Beasley’s campaign chairman.
As governor, Beasley first opposed moving the Confederate flag from the State House dome, then supported moving it. When that effort failed, he opposed further attempts.
On the lottery, Beasley first opposed a public referendum on the issue but later supported it.
Campbell said DeMint had promised a positive campaign.
But Francis Marion University political scientist Neal Thigpen said the ad is “mild negative” at most. “You’ve only got less than two weeks, you’re going to go a little negative. But it’s mild negative,” Thigpen said.
It helps, Thigpen said, that the two men in the ad have already appeared in a DeMint commercial. The first spot features the two men, one in a cap, one with a spiffy white beard, lauding DeMint’s conservative credentials.
But Beasley’s team sees the ad as a sign of desperation. They tout a new internal poll that shows Beasley leading DeMint 47 percent to 38 percent, with 15 percent undecided.
DeMint spokesman Terry Sullivan said that the ad is “light-hearted” but necessary.
“It’s not enough to take a position; you have to stick with it,” Sullivan said.
That’s exactly what DeMint hasn’t done, said Beasley political consultant Richard Quinn. Quinn said that when DeMint ran for Congress, he promised never to accept contributions from political action committees. But in this campaign, DeMint has taken more than $400,000 in PAC money.
DeMint has said that his promise was only for smaller-scale House campaigns and that when he announced his Senate candidacy, he said he would take PAC money.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestate.com ...
I'm not sure that this should be a given that it will hurt DeMint.
Given the parallels to John Kerry's flip-flopping image, it should make for an interesting test of how effective it is as a strategy to make an issue of it.
Survey after survey shows that here is what is important to S.Carolinians, Jobs, education, lower taxes. The flag issue (which I thought was put to rest --- finally, when it was taken off the dome and honored at a memorial) ranks about 99th of 100 issues as a low priority. DeMint will embarrass the whole state by trying to re-ignite this issue. Also, he can now kiss the black voters bye bye (and DEMS who did not vote in the primary can vote on June22). His campaign mgr, Sullivan, has background with the video poker gang. Is that a surprise?
I'm not sure that this should be a given that it will hurt DeMint.
You may be right, but in general Republicans do not take well to personal attacks on candidates from within the party. The other thing hurting DeMint is that he only has a couple of weeks, while half the world is on vacation, to make up ground. Since he does not show a real good outgoing personality, that is about hopeless. Ravenel, who finished third, would have been a much tougher DB opponent.
Let's face it: in a two man race, you can go negative, and both sides have already started.
Also, don't think IT won't point out even worse things about DB or JD.
Also, you left out the part where he started opposing it again once he found out how unpopular the idea was. :-)
As governor, Beasley first opposed moving the Confederate flag from the State House dome, then supported moving it
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Let's face it: in a two man race, you can go negative, and both sides have already started.
I agree, they both will hit the negative side. I think it gets nastier when it is more personalized like in the DeMint attack on DB. Usually the guy trailing will take a shot like this, moreso when there is no time to really campaign. Since Beasley beat DeMint in 3 of the 4 counties DeMint represents, I can't imagine what DeMint can do to win. So he has to fight mean. It will be interesting to see if Ravenel digs "deep" into his own pocket to back DeMint. My bet says he sits on his wallet.
He won't embarrass the state by bringing up the flag issue. His flip flop is a matter of fact. There are still plenty of us pissed off at sleazely and we will campaign against him.
DB is not popular in the lowcountry. JD is largely unknown. If JD can paint DB as...well, if JD reminds everyone here about DB, he might could pull off a win. You saw where Lindsey Graham got tourqed at DB for claiming he supported DB on trade issues? It's slip-ups like that that remind people why Hodges beat DB.
Yes, all of that was pretty odd because Hodges helped to shut down the poker gang. If you drive into SC from NC on 15 South into McColl, SC, you see about 10 fairly new buildings that were poker nightclubs, nearly all empty. I like the lottery myself, and now I get a kick out of all the fundamentalists who raged against it, now taking new scholarship money from it for their kids. Can't blame them too much with Clemson raising tuition 115% in the past 4 years.
Ha, ha, love that tagline. It will be even better when we are calling him Senator Beasley. You won't see the Beaz voting against the military, ever. But Inez will...... and enjoy it along with Teddy K., Schumer, Boxer, and the gang.
The lotteries of all the states don't ever seem to do what the advocates promise they do--there were scholarships long before the lottery.
I remember stepping into convenience stores in SC and there'd be several creepy guys hanging around playing video poker, especially on Fridays after they'd get paid--at least with the lottery, people get their fix and *leave*--used to be afraid to send a kid in to get a gallon of milk. But the tatooed set got their feelings hurt when the games shut down, and took it out of Beasley.
Demint seems kind of a suit to me--but anyone who can beat Tennenbaum. Which will be harder than people think--there's a lot of disaffected GOPers out there.
Which will be harder than people think--there's a lot of disaffected GOPers out there.
I agree with that sentiment. Sanford has a GOP legislature and the idiots wont cut taxes or spending. Did we really need another 4 year university, USC Sumter? If something really riles up the blacks against the GOP, Inez will be elected. No doubt in my mind. If the blacks stay home, a GOP senator is guaranteed.
I don't believe Sandford supports a new university--but he may not be able to foster a loud opposition at this time. Notice that the trial lawyers don't have much problem starting up a whole new private law school--?
No, you have to have voted in the Primary to vote in the Runoff.
Are you sure about that? I've heard as long as you did not vote commiecrat in the primary, you can vote in the run-off. This works for DB as he was once a Democrat and he could get support from them (ones who did not vote in the primary) in order to muck up our chances in November. Then again, IT will not win no mattter who is on the Republican side, even DB.
Calling someone wishy-washy is "negative and vicious"?
Negative yes, because it isn't a compliment. Vicious? Not by a long shot. In fact, I find that kind of whining over ads that inform the public of someone's position (or lack thereof) really annoying. If all he can do is cry over a critical ad, he reminds me of Kerry and the Dems complaining how "vicious" Bush is.
Give me DeMint over Beasley any day.
If Beasley wants to counterattack effectively, jobs would be his issue. Jim DeMint is a free-trader. Many South Carolinians equate free trade agreements with factory closings and outsourcing. All Beasley needs to do is make that link in his television commercials and stump speeches.
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