{"id":96,"date":"2018-11-04T01:04:37","date_gmt":"2018-11-04T05:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/midtermsmatter\/?p=96"},"modified":"2021-06-02T11:29:07","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T15:29:07","slug":"just-say-no-negative-ads-and-the-negative-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/midtermsmatter\/just-say-no-negative-ads-and-the-negative-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Say No: Negative Ads and the Negative Response"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Molly Milligan, Hamza Hasheem, Jordan Antebi, and Natalie Nagorski<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In Arizona, the gloves are off, as Representatives Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema vie for an open Senate seat that could determine control of Congress. \u00a0Since early 2018, Republican McSally and Democrat Sinema have spent a combined $30 million on television and print ads \u2014 many of them negative attacks \u2014 in a strategy that has prompted mixed responses from voters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At the State Fair in Phoenix, Chase Gibbons, a McSally supporter, said he was receptive to aggressive, partisan advertising. For him, the ads provided essential information on the candidates\u2019 records, and helped convince him to vote against Sinema. \u201cThere\u2019s plenty of stuff to dig up on her,\u201d he said, referring to an old image of the Democrat in a pink <\/span>tutu<\/span><\/a> protesting the Iraq war. The McSally campaign has paired the photo with a picture of their candidate, a former Army combat pilot, in her flight jacket.<\/span><\/p>\n

But independent voter Donna Moore was turned off by the tactic, calling it \u201cvery disappointing.\u201d Moore cited the fact \u201cthat the Republican candidate for senator started with the nastiness even before the primary\u201d as one reason why she chose to vote for Sinema. McSally\u2019s advertising strategy, Moore believed, deterred many Arizona independents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Negative ads<\/span><\/a> like this one from Sinema have even dissuaded some from voting this cycle. Robert Oman, who did not disclose his party affiliation, said he felt cynical about the smear tactics of the senate campaigns, and would not cast a ballot. \u201cI think it\u2019s all ridiculous. It\u2019s all bashing,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike Moore, who faulted the GOP, Oman criticized both parties and their messages. Going negative, Oman believed, only blurred the candidates\u2019 true personalities, and made it difficult to evaluate their positions on the issues. \u201cYou can\u2019t go both ways, you can\u2019t beat up on somebody while also getting the message across,\u201d Oman said. \u201cA lot of it is probably true, but it don\u2019t matter, they\u2019re not stating the facts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Molly Milligan, Hamza Hasheem, Jordan Antebi, and Natalie Nagorski In Arizona, the gloves are off, as Representatives Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema vie for an open Senate seat that could determine control of Congress. \u00a0Since early 2018, Republican McSally and Democrat Sinema have spent a combined $30 million on television and print ads \u2014<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":733,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/midtermsmatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/midtermsmatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/midtermsmatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/midtermsmatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/midtermsmatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/midtermsmatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/midtermsmatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/midtermsmatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/midtermsmatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/midtermsmatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}