Democratic Attacks Get Personal

Published



ABC’s Jonathan Karl documents how Democratic attack ads recently have been nothing about the policy and all about the personal. Take, for instance, this snippet about a House race in Kentucky:

It’s not just the Aqua Buddha and David Vitter’s prostitute, Democratic candidates across the country are closing out the campaign with personal attacks on Republican candidates, sometimes digging up decades-old legal problems.
In one typical example, Democratic ads have transformed Kentucky Republican House candidate Andy Barr into “a convicted criminal” — complete with images yellow police tape and fuzzy video of crime scenes. Not mentioned is his crime: As a college student 19 years ago, he was caught using a fake ID during spring break.

Here’s the ad, from Democratic incumbent Ben Chandler:

Real Clear Politics ranks this race as a toss up.

Reason TV gives us some perspective: