Candidates toddling for votes
Posted on 05/18/2002 2:25:32 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Candidates toddling for votes
Texas candidates aim at voters' soft spots by posting childhood photos on Web
05/19/2002
AUSTIN - Texas candidates: smart as a whip, tough as a boot, soft as a baby's behind.
It seems the Internet has brought a new dimension to some statewide candidates.
On their campaign Web sites, some of the state's most public men are revealed in ways never seen before except for maybe prom night, when Mom mortified them by producing the family album.
There is John Cornyn, former state Supreme Court justice and the GOP's Senate nominee, diapered, resting on his tummy and holding his small fist pensively poised at his lower lip. Another picture shows the attorney general in toddler coveralls, his hair sculpted like a dip cone.
Larry Robinson John Cornyn, former state Supreme Court justice and the GOP's Senate nominee, has baby photos on his Web site. |
Or Kirk Watson, Democrat for attorney general, appearing relaxed in his checked jacket and clip-on bow tie, with his hands clasped in his lap. He glances away from a photographer with a slight smile.
No fewer than six statewide candidates have included baby and pre-adolescent pictures on their Web site biographies.
"Youth, childhood, babies it's clean and pure and brings back great memories and connects to something important in their lives," said political consultant Bill Miller, an Austin political consultant.
He called it the softer side of politics beyond issues, appeals for money and list of accomplishments.
"These Web sites are trying to compete; they're trying to offer something that will attract you. It's a cafeteria. There's something for everyone," Mr. Miller said.
Courtesy This photo of Ron Kirk at age 5 appears on the Senate candidate's Web site. |
This being Texas politics, it could always devolve away from sweetness and light, and toward competition and accusation, he said. "The opponent might go nude on a baby blanket," he said, jokingly.
No, no, no. There's not even a bearskin rug, Cornyn spokesman Dave Beckwith said.
He said the cute childhood images are just one more way to "humanize the candidates."
And it is fun to see the child in the man, to see how they've grown up.
"I did notice at that stage most of them had more hair," Mr. Beckwith said.
Besides Mr. Cornyn, his Democratic rival Ron Kirk former Dallas mayor and Texas secretary of state is shown at age 5 in his buttoned-up shirt, sitting back, caught looking away at something that prompts a small, knowing smile.
And gubernatorial hopeful Tony Sanchez is there with even less formality.
He appears just out of reach of the bright sunlight in a sailor-roped, open-throated shirt.
Courtesy Some childhood photos of gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez are posted on his Web site. |
He is so obviously pleased, his eyes narrowed by laughter, his freckled cheeks wide, an irrepressible grin beamed into the lens. He has no front teeth.
Republican land commissioner contender Jerry Patterson is shown in his elementary class picture, looking scrubbed and earnest.
His Democratic foe, David Bernsen, wears a look of determination and a pee-wee White Sox baseball uniform.
Gene Kincaid, on the University of Texas advertising faculty, said Web sites try to hook visitors with all sorts of variables.
"Heck, politicians kiss babies all the time. They might as well show themselves as babies," he said.
It's cheap to add such information to a Web site, and if these pictures add a little warmth, that might just be the "microtrigger" that makes a voter link with a candidate, Mr. Kincaid said.
Besides, he said, these are biographies, showing the candidate's roots, and one of the first thing any new acquaintance asks is, "Where ya'll from?"
"You hear it all the time," he said. "Well, you can't go much further back than a baby on a rug with its backside showing."
At least that's the hope.
E-mail choppe@dallasnews.com
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I hope all of America sees this and sees what a bunch of stupid @$$&$ we have running for office in Texas!!
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