Political campaigns tend to start and end with smiles and hearty proffers of goodwill, but sandwiched between are the charges and countercharges of candidates who call their opponents sniveling connivers.
With less than a week to go before Tuesday’s primary, the TV has become the wellspring for a torrent of negative political advertising from candidates. All are filled with accusations designed to take what might be a kernel of truth and spin it wildly out of control.
On Tuesday alone, Republican candidate for governor Corinne Wood unveiled a new commercial accusing front-running rival Jim Ryan of taking “kickbacks” in the form of contributions from lawyers he hired as attorney general. In the Democratic race for governor, Rod Blagojevich followed up an ad ripping rival Paul Vallas with a new one lambasting Vallas–for running negative attack ads.
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“I think it’s gotten personal, it really has,” said Roland Burris, the third Democratic contender, who has largely stayed above the fray. “We’re going to have to work together to win in November.”
Like a violent storm that suddenly breaks, the campaign vitriol will almost surely fade from the airwaves this weekend as candidates try to give their image a last-minute pre-election scrub. In the meantime, however, the mud continues to fly.
The latest ad from Wood, the state’s lieutenant governor who is trailing badly in the polls to Ryan, says the attorney general “shook down his own employees” for campaign contributions and contends the $1.7 million he received in campaign donations from contractual attorneys may have been kickbacks.
While the commercial gives voters the perception that the attorney general may have committed criminal acts, Wood’s campaign parses its words in saying it is only questioning Ryan’s ethics.
“She is questioning whether they are kickbacks or contributions. And if you look at the [TV] spot, it is always with a question and a question mark,” said Wood campaign strategist Don Rose.
Ryan, who has used ads to link Wood as a “full and equal partner” to politically troubled Gov. George Ryan’s administration, described her latest ad as “an 11th-hour smear campaign.”
“Using the words `shakedown’ and `kickback’ crosses the line and she knows it and they did it purposely. It amounts to character assassination and she should pull the ad,” Ryan said.
“I think people expect more from someone who wants to lead them.”
On the Democratic side, Blagojevich unveiled a new commercial that uses a tactic that any parent with two squabbling children would recognize. Blagojevich ran a TV commercial last week accusing Vallas of union busting and wasteful spending when he ran the Chicago schools. Vallas denied it and responded in kind in his own ad, and now Blagojevich is attacking Vallas for running a negative attack ad.
“It’s Paul Vallas’ attack that’s wrong,” Blagojevich’s latest ad says as it replays a portion of Vallas’ own ad that says, “Rod Blagojevich is what’s wrong with politics in Illinois.”
While the commercial takes a shot at Vallas, upbeat music then begins to crescendo as a narrator speaks positively about the endorsements Blagojevich has received from social and labor organizations. It is, Blagojevich acknowledged, a way to segue into a statesman-like ending for the campaign.
Vallas, whose advertising blasted Blagojevich for being a tool of “party bosses,” has avoided mentioning his rivals on the campaign stump. But at a Downstate community college, Vallas told a group of educators, “Every time he attacks me, Rod’s numbers just keep going down.”
Blagojevich said Vallas was using “personal attacks” rather than questioning his record.
“We all have an obligation to discuss the differences that we have on views, on issues, on plans, policies, and on records,” Blagojevich said. “There has to be distinctions between candidates, otherwise this is a just a popularity contest.”