Parties left out in political advertising

Posted at 10:58 AM on September 13, 2010 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Politics

Democrats who are running for office aren't touting their Democrat pedigrees, the New York Times reports today. Few Democrat incumbents are running on the major legislation they helped pass in the last two years.

If the images of Barack Obama and/or Nancy Pelosi appears in a political TV ad, it's usually a Republican ad.

Sen. Mark Dayton will ignore the template when he brings VP Joe Biden in for a rally in October, but that may be as much about shaking the DFL money tree as it is getting more votes.

Still, in Dayton's advertising, as this latest ad shows, the one word missing is: Democrat.

Is it significant? Maybe not. Tom Emmer doesn't mention a party affiliation in his TV ad, either.

Independence Party candidate Tom Horner is the only candidate to mention the word "Republican" or "Democrat" in his ad. But he doesn't mention his own party, either.

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Comments (2)

Mentioning party affiliation would come dangerously close to giving us factual information in a campaign ad, and we can't have that.

From what I can tell, our assignment is to vote for the one with the most wholesome looking family.

Posted by John | September 13, 2010 1:37 PM

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I disagree with John. Politicians are running away from party labels because of both anti-incumbency and the hyper-partisan attitude in Washington and on TV. Look at the impact Ron Paul had in 2008 on the GOP. Many of his delegates were practically marched out of conventions with pitchforks. People are angry and they want to blame parties for the same reason they've been voting against parties more and more in recent years. Partisan bickering knows no limits. All people hear is this: "Our people are always right. The enemy is always wrong. No good ideas will ever come from listening to people who disagree with us on any issue." Running away from the label means you get to define your own campaign.

Posted by Colin | September 14, 2010 3:50 PM

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