ATTACKS WITH SOME STRINGS
Attacking a dying cancer patient might seem like crossing a line, even in a political campaign.
But that didn’t stop Steve Pearce’s campaign from leaping over it and pirouetting on the grave of one of his opponent’s supporters in what might have been the worst campaign ad of the season.
The television spot attacked Diego Zamora, a Santa Fe lawyer. He appeared in an ad defending Michelle Lujan Grisham from the Pearce campaign’s allegations that an insurance program her company ran was a corrupt scheme.
Zamora, visibly ailing, said he had benefited from the program and stood with Lujan Grisham. Pearce’s camp shot back with a spot dredging up his suspension from the state bar years earlier and allegations that he was addicted to drugs. Zamora died weeks later. To be sure, the ad was just one in a burgeoning genre of attacks that follow a predictable formula — grainy images, narrator with a scary voice, the works.
Many TV viewers likely tune it all out.
The smart campaigns find a way to break this mold and create ads that actually get viewers to pay attention.
Pearce’s early ads — humanizing and quick — were far more focused than those of his competitors.
But the only campaign that seemed to break the mold this year was actually a political action committee funded by trial lawyers backing Democratic candidates for judge.
Its TV spot depicted five Republican judges appointed
by Gov. Susana Martinez as “her favorite toy” — puppets on a string pulled by the outgoing, unpopular governor. The ad sounds like a commercial for a toy.
Yes, it represented an alarming entrance of outisde
money into races that are mostly publicly financed. But even well-placed Republicans admitted the ad was sharp.
After Tuesday, though, these ads will be over. Everyone will probably be relieved about that.