I'm Done with the Negative Ads!

It's election time so that means everyone hates each other.  I'm not a Trump supporter but it amazes me how many of my Facebook friends are so I avoid those posts.  Once its all said and done the internet can be fun again.  Besides, we have the awesome television commercials to depress us every day during every show we watch.  It's like this every election cycle but we power through it and get to the point where the elected officials don't act like they care about us anymore.

I'm numb to this nonsense.  I actually have a good working knowledge of election politics so much of the behavior is expected.  This time around, however, I have a real problem with the local races for the Illinois General Assembly.  The fight is on to unseat incumbent democrats and a whole lot of money is being spent to feed us negative ads with far fetched story lines.  I am not concerned about the incumbents, I am concerned about the newcomers to the scene.  To be fair, the incumbents should be running on their records and accomplishments.  Voters respond to experience and research has shown that negative ads do not motivate people to vote.  Instead everyone went negative with their ads almost immediately.

Despite being a Democrat, I can say that nobody is playing nice or even smart.  The Southern said it appropriately that the negative ads are scare tactics and do personal damage to the candidates.  One negatively ran race in particular has rubbed me the wrong way.  When Terri Bryant originally ran for the State House she was interviewed for an endorsement by the Alliance.  This is a group made up of the education advocacy groups.  I was fortunate enough to get to help interview the candidates and recommend an endorsement.  She did a very nice job on the issues for a newcomer.  Her opponent was not kind to her in his interview and it was quite off putting.  She was given the endorsement and a campaign donation based on her likely support of education issues.

Fast forward two years later.  Rep. Bryant is running against a newcomer with no legislative record, just as she was.  Marsha Griffin is a school teacher new to politics and she has been painted as reckless and unfit to hold the seat.  The newest ad run by Bryant points out that she was teaching on a lapsed teaching license and that she is missing work to campaign.  Maybe Rep. Bryant could be working on the licensing issues teachers have had seems how she has taken money from an education group.  This is the weakest tactic I've seen by incumbents ever.  They should run on their records and challenge their opponents based on their lack of knowledge of the issues or experience handling them.  If you had met Rep. Bryant two years ago, you would have seen the same inexperience.  Another similarity between the candidates, they are both heavily supported by their parties to not lose the seat.  Running out of desperation leads to negative campaign tactics that do nothing to inform voters.  Or maybe Rep. Bryant's record is not worth campaigning on.  Bobcat hunting just doesn't take care of itself you know.

I do not know Marsha Griffin and obviously I will always rise to respond to attacks on a teacher.  Thanks to the campaigning that has taken place, I will not get to know her or her platform.  The strategy is now to fight fire with fire leaving only destruction.  The same goes for the other races in this election.  The newcomers have been painted as bad as those who have sent them campaign cash and we are supposed to equate them with their donors.  I say check to see who is donating to who.  You might be surprised.  Thankfully, I will not be voting in the 115th so I am no threat to that election.

Folks, do your homework on your candidates.  No one is playing fair so its up to us to sift through the BS.  I don't have clever advice or any direction with this but hey, it doesn't look like you have to these days.