Analysis: Senate race one of most negative in state history

Nearly two months before Republican Marsha Blackburn became Tennessee’s next U.S. senator, she came into The Tennessean’s office to talk about the issues facing the state and nation.

During the midSeptember editorial board meeting, she said that good public policy is informed by robust and respectful political debate.

Blackburn said although she would highlight differences between her campaign and her opponent’s — former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen — that does not mean “that you go into personal attacks.”

“We are going to run a respectful, robust campaign and at the end of the day, on Nov. 6, we’re going to win this race,” she concluded.

During his own editorial board meeting just days later, Bredesen said there’s a clear line between attacking your opponent and pointing out differences.

“I think comparing and contrasting two people in a campaign, it’s what campaigns are about,” he said. “I don’t think that’s negative advertising.”

But in the weeks since their comments, the race between Blackburn and Bredesen devolved into arguably one of the most negative campaigns in Tennessee history.

At the same time, Republican Gov.-elect Bill Lee and his opponent, Democrat Karl Dean, largely stayed above the fray in their race to be the state’s 50th governor.

While the difference between the two races was noticeable, it could be a harbinger of future elections.

Ever since Blackburn first ran for office in 1992, she has had partisan views and a strong belief in conservative Republican values, said Middle Tennessee State University political science professor Kent Syler.

Syler, the campaign manager for former U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, Blackburn’s 1992 opponent, pointed to the Senatorelect’s initial campaign video and her closing message as evidence of her approach throughout this year’s campaign.

“She has been a consistent conservative since she entered politics in 1992,” he said.

Throughout the race, Blackburn and state and national Republicans went on the offensive against Bredesen.

In July, Ward Baker, Blackburn’s campaign strategist, said the race would not be won by “death by a thousand cuts. It’s going to be death by 10,000 cuts.”

Baker also referred to Bredesen as “Phantom Phil,” accusing him of a disappearing act on the campaign trail.

In a September fundraising email, Blackburn’s campaign referred to Bredesen as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s “handpicked liberal lackey.”

The campaign also frequently referred to Bredesen as “Phony Phil,” including from campaign spokeswoman Abbi Sigler.

Syler said Blackburn’s campaign knew it would be difficult to disqualify Bredesen and so it naturally made sense to try to nationalize the race.

And even with such attacks against Bredesen, he remained popular. Syler noted that even in polls that had Blackburn ahead, Bredesen’s popularity remained high.

Bredesen’s campaign countered the attacks by labeling Blackburn as part of the Washington, D.C., establishment, even referring to one of her ads as “pure swamp scum.” In late September, Bredesen’s campaign launched an ad that took place in a swamp.

When Bredesen’s campaign pushed back against a TV spot that Blackburn had been running about sexual harassment issues during his time as governor, he ran an ad that featured a woman who called Blackburn a “liar.”

In late August, Bredesen’s campaign sent out a news release accusing Blackburn of “following the losing D.C. Diane playbook” — a reference U.S. Rep. Diane Black, who failed in her bid for Republican gubernatorial nomination earlier this year.

AN ONSLAUGHT OF OUTSIDE-FUNDED ATTACKS

In the past, Tennessee has seen its fair share of nastiness in statewide races.

In the 1994 Republican primary to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Jim Sasser, Bill Frist’s campaign manager called thencandidate Bob Corker “pond scum” after Corker ran an ad that suggested Frist may have been a draft dodger.

That same year, when U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper competed against attorney and actor Fred Thompson in a special Senate election, the Nashville Democrat referred to his opponent in an ad as a “Gucci-wearing, Lincolndriving, Perrier-drinking, Grey Poupon-spreading millionaire Washington special-interest lobbyist.”

In 2002, when Bredesen was running for governor against then-U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary, the Republican tried to link the Nashville Democrat with outgoing Gov. Don Sundquist. There were even ads and bumper stickers calling him “Phil BredeSundquist.”

Perhaps the most memorable negative attack in Tennessee history came in 2006, when Corker faced then-U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. in the general election for U.S. Senate.

In the final month of the race, the Republican National Committee ran an ad that included a scantily clad woman who said she had “met Harold at the Playboy party.” At the end of the ad, the woman whispered into the camera, “Harold call me.”

The ad was widely viewed as stoking racist fears. Calling the ad “distasteful,” Corker called for it to stop airing.

Syler said negative attacks are often the result of a race being competitive. “The closer the races get, the nastier they get,” he said.

As the BlackburnBredesen race continued to appear close, outside groups quickly began spending millions of dollars to run negative attacks against both candidates.

By the end of the race, the vast majority — nearly $42 million of the $57.9 million — that had been spent by outside groups was for negative or critical attacks against the candidates. Attacks against Bredesen totaled $22.1 million, with $19.7 million spent to oppose Blackburn. Such totals do not include money the candidates’ campaigns spent on their own ads.

In the final month of the Senate race, nearly every ad that ran on television appeared to attack one of the candidates.

“Phil Bredesen has the distinction of having more attack ads run against him than any politician in Tennessee history and Marsha Blackburn is second,” Syler said.

Syler said part of the reason the Senate race saw so much negativity was the competitive nature of it. At the same time, that may be why there weren’t as many critical ads in the lead up to the general election for the governor’s race, he said.

“The partisan nature of politics at the federal level is more intense than the partisan nature here in Tennessee,” Syler said. “[If the governor’s race] had been close and either side could have gained an advantage by running attack ads it would have happened.”

Throughout the LeeDean race, the candidates largely remained cordial. In his final ad, Lee even referred to Dean as a “good man.”

The remark was right in line with Lee’s approach during the Republican primary, which featured a flurry of negative attacks paid for by two of Lee’s competitors. Lee responded to the attacks from his GOP opponents by saying in an ad that he was “not going down that road.”

“He genuinely doesn’t like to campaign like that,” Syler said.