Constance Nompelis wrote about Dean Kallenbach's mailing:
I also received the postcard from Dean Kallenbach.
snip
The postcard was pretty sad, with it's bold red ink,
and highly accusatory tone.
I wish DK would have talked about what he has, or will
do, rather than slamming his opponent. I suspect that
he simply has no campaign, and this negative stuff is
all the team can come up with at this point.
David Piehl writes:
It is my observation over the years that negative campaigning is the hallmark of
two types of campaigns.
The first type is a campaign where the candidate has little if anything in the
way of vision, experience, etc to run on, so they try to divert attention from
their own failures and shortcomings by slinging mud.
The second type of campaign that will embrace negativity is a campaign that is
clearly failing, and has little other hope of winning. Accusations of
disturbing "hidden" agendas are all too common in failing campaigns that hope to
generate distrust through their misinformation.
In any event, I (and many voters) don't respond well to negativity. How
productive is the negativity? Does it tell me anything I need to know? OK, if
someone has something in their past that is relevent, it may be worth
considering - but presenting it in judgemental, self serving ways is not going
to impress me.
Real candidates talk about real issues, and what they would do to affect the
issues that voters are concerned about if elected. (the really good ones
actually follow through, too)
Voters beware!
The negative campaigns should learn something from consumer behavior when
attempting to understand voter behavior. Would any of us consider buying brand
X because brand X says that brand Y is bad? Or would we buy brand X because
brand X tells us all the reasons why their brand is the most satisfying?
Comparisons are one thing, outright denigration of the challenger is another.
I personally have gone one step beyond, and have chosen to never vote for a
candidate that is unneccessarily negative, because I believe it foreshadows that
candidates behavior in office if elected.
David Piehl
Central
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