Ads May Hurt Kilgore More Than They Help:Poll Finds Backlash to Death Pena

[Judi Lynn]

Ads May Hurt Kilgore More Than They Help
Poll Finds Backlash to Death Penalty Spots

By Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page A11

Democratic media strategists David Eichenbaum and Karl Struble knew the television attack was coming, but they didn't know what form it would take.
(snip)



A Washington Post poll conducted last week found that two of three Virginia voters said the ads were "unfair," including nearly 75 percent of the self-described independents that both campaigns covet. Even 60 percent of those who favor the death penalty said the ads crossed the line. Those who had an unfavorable opinion of Kilgore jumped 10 points, and those who believed he "would say anything to get elected" increased 16 points, to 55 percent.

"It sounds like voters have really rebelled against this ad and are punishing the messenger," said Darrell West, a political science professor at Brown University who has written extensively on the subject of political advertising.
(snip)

Howell's work on the campaign of Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) was particularly divisive because of ads that painted Cleland -- a decorated Vietnam veteran who lost three limbs in battle -- as weak on defense.
(snip)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901378.html
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[autorank]

1. Virginia will reject Kilgore, unless they seriously hack the election.

Bush approval in VA 41%, disapprove 56%. Wow, and King George was kind enough to show up in Norfolk recently...without any sign of Kilgore.

Kilgore is the tipping point for Virginians. He's going down, hard!

[MrScorpio]

2. Slimebag Jerry Kilgore is TOAST

He's the last thing that this state needs

[autorank]

3. Amen.

That's why I'm working for the Kaine campaign, like I have the time! But I'm making it. I've been here 20 years but Kilgore is to damn much. If he wins, I say Northern Virginia secedes from the state somehow.

[anotherdrew]

4. ha. ha. ha. I love it when they fail so well.

howell's career needs to be put in the crapper, his work is despicable. These kinds of ads could end if they start failing all over the place.

Also, I don't like the idea of any rethug named kil-gore, the secret service need to check if that's his real name ;)

[wakeme2008]

5. All Kilgore was running for a time was

his Kaine would be soft on Hilter ad and it is a major turnoff IMHO.

But I also believe Max Cleland really won Georgia. So I fear Kilgore will win thanks to Touchscreen voting. :grr:

[DeepModem Mom]

6. WP: Ads May Hurt (GOP's) Kilgore More Than Help (Va. gubernatorial race)

Ads May Hurt Kilgore More Than They Help
Poll Finds Backlash to Death Penalty Spots
By Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page A11


....What (Scott Howell, one of the country's most successful GOP strategists) produced was one of the most arresting images in recent campaign television: a widow, seated in a darkened studio, on the verge of tears and tremulously talking about the man on death row who murdered her police officer husband.

"How could you not think the death penalty was appropriate? That's not justice," she says. "When Tim Kaine calls the death penalty murder, I find it offensive, and I don't trust Tim Kaine to uphold that law."...

***

The ad -- and a subsequent spot that showed a grieving father who criticized Kaine for voluntarily representing death row inmates in their appeals and who said Kaine believed even Adolf Hitler was not a candidate for execution -- electrified a race that until then had seemed to many voters one without compelling characters or transcendent issues. But it also demonstrates the unpredictability of emotional appeals to voters.

A Washington Post poll conducted last week found that two of three Virginia voters said the ads were "unfair," including nearly 75 percent of the self-described independents that both campaigns covet. Even 60 percent of those who favor the death penalty said the ads crossed the line. Those who had an unfavorable opinion of Kilgore jumped 10 points, and those who believed he "would say anything to get elected" increased 16 points, to 55 percent.

"It sounds like voters have really rebelled against this ad and are punishing the messenger," said Darrell West, a political science professor at Brown University who has written extensively on the subject of political advertising....

(NOTE: Howell produced the attack ads on Max Cleland in the 2002 Georgia Senatorial campaign.)


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901378.html

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Sorry for dupe, Judi Lynn -- I thought I searched "Kilgore"...

without any results.

[Zynx]

8. Kilgore sucks. I'm rooting for our Virginia DUers to end his political

career in this election.