General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSex, lies and DUIs: GOP dumps oppo on Dem House hopefuls
Sex, lies and DUIs: GOP dumps oppo on Dem House hopefuls
Republican ads are getting personal in the fight for the House majority.
By ELENA SCHNEIDER 08/20/2
Dramatized police dispatch calls of a DUI arrest. Allegations of sexual harassment. Court filings reviewing failed business investments.
Those are attacks leveled against Democratic congressional candidates in a new Republican ad campaign in recent days part of a growing effort to personalize the midterm elections and disqualify individual Democratic hopefuls early in a bid to save the Republican House majority.
National trends are driving the general direction of the 2018 midterms, fueled by strong feelings about health care, taxes, President Donald Trump and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. But with so many first-time candidates running on the Democratic side without the baggage of legislative voting records or controversial positions adopted over a long public career and the political environment tilting toward them, GOP efforts to keep them out of the House may hinge on specific personal critiques, vetting them publicly for the first time.
Thats how Congressional Leadership Fund, the Republican super PAC, is starting its campaign against Democrat Sean Casten in Illinois, blasting him for mismanagement, fraud, greed at his company in a TV ad released Wednesday. (Castens campaign called it false attacks in a statement.) The group is also hammering Randy Bryce, the Democratic nominee in Speaker Paul Ryans district, over a drunk driving arrest.
And there's more to come: A review of research materials collected by the National Republican Congressional Committee shows that the campaign committee plans to litigate many more Democrats' professional history, including digging through client and case histories of a half-dozen attorneys running in top battleground districts. CLF set up its own in-house research unit, a first for the group this cycle as it seeks to dig up its own dirt on Senate and House candidates.
The fact is that the treasure trove of research books on these Democratic candidates is amazing, said Guy Harrison, a Republican consultant who led the NRCC during the 2010 and 2012 cycles. Its probably the deepest and most wacky Ive ever seen in a cycle.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/20/house-republicans-oppo-research-788468
This is just the tip of the iceberg, Harrison added.
elleng
(130,974 posts)WePurrsevere
(24,259 posts)We're in this nasty mess. Ignoring them or acting noble doesn't normally work. At some point one MUST stand up to bullies by facing them down and hitting them HARD in the proverbial solar plexus and shoving THEM down into the muck they're standing in.
Candidates should address the issues they intend to work on and how by all means but EVERY pro-Democrat and left leaning political org out there should be systematically tearing apart REPUBLICANS and NEVER those on the same friggin side at this point. The stakes have never been so high and our country, heck, the world, can't afford the CONS winning.
Tiggeroshii
(11,088 posts)beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)impact on voters who are disgusted with trump and the GOP. Matter of fact, this tactic will most likely bring out even more democratic voters
Marcuse
(7,488 posts)Just win baby!