Near the end of Tuesday\u2019s \u201cOn the Issues with Mike Gousha\u201d session at the Law School, Gousha asked Mike Tate, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, and Reince\u00a0 Priebus, chair of the Wisconsin Republican Party, whether they thought candidates can win while running positive campaigns.<\/p>\n
Neither directly answered the question from Gousha, the Law School\u2019s Distinguished Fellow in Law and Public Policy. But Tate came closer.\u00a0 You have to have to draw contrasts with your opponent, he said. And when one campaign launches an ad that is arguably negative, \u201cit\u2019s an arms race,\u201d Tate said. \u00a0If you don\u2019t respond, you risk losing. Voters remember negative ads, Tate said.<\/p>\n
Priebus responded by criticizing Democratic campaigns for playing what he called \u201csmall ball\u201d this fall, focusing on minor matters that they could use to attack Republicans instead of on major issues, like jobs, the economy, and the growth of government spending.<\/p>\n
What neither said to Gousha\u2019s question was, yes, you can win by staying positive. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Also on Tuesday,\u00a0Matt Lauer, host of NBC\u2019s \u201cToday\u201d show, asked the major candidates for governor in California if they would agree to stay positive in their commercials for the last few days of the campaign. The audience at the event reacted with enthusiastic applause. But Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown hemmed and hawed, and neither agreed. Why? Because that\u2019s not the strategy either of their campaigns thinks is best for the homestretch.<\/p>\n
One thing that\u2019s clear from this highly combative political season in both Wisconsin and the nation is that the wisdom and\/or necessity of going for the opponent\u2019s perceived weak spots is one thing Republicans and Democrats agree on. They both do it; they\u2019re going to keep doing it; and, as independent spending on advertisement skyrockets, the organizations that have joined in the fray are even more oriented to it.<\/p>\n
Feel free to complain about the tone of the campaigns (I do). But ask yourself what ads stick in your own mind or seem to have influenced public opinion, best as you can tell. It\u2019s not so likely that the kinder, gentler ads are the honest\u00a0answer.<\/p>\n
Meantime, a few other thoughts from Tate and Priebus at the Law School:<\/p>\n
Priebus, after Tate talked about how he was optimistic about the chances of Democrats in next Tuesday\u2019s election: \u201cMike\u2019s a lot like I sounded before the \u201908 election. . . . I know what it\u2019s like to get killed in an election. I know what it\u2019s like to put on that smiling face before walking off a cliff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tate, after Gousha asked if Tom Barrett, the Democratic candidate for governor, would get 60 percent of the vote in Milwaukee County, considered by some a requirement for a Democrat to win a statewide race:\u00a0 \u201cThe ultimate challenge\u201d for Barrett is how he will do in the Milwaukee and Green Bay areas. But, Tate said, Barrett is running strong in Milwaukee County and is likely to hit the 60 percent mark.<\/p>\n
Priebus: \u00a0\u201cThe party that wins is the party that has the enthusiasm from the ground up, not manufactured from the top down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tate: \u00a0\u201cWe have seen a closing of the enthusiasm gap.\u201d<\/p>\n
Priebus: \u00a0\u201cThe Mark Neumann voter is certainly not going to be a Tom Barrett voter and there aren\u2019t going to be an awful lot of Republicans staying home.\u201d Republican candidate Scott Walker beat Neumann in the September primary, but Neumann outpolled Walker in much of western Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
Tate: The publicly-released polls are under-sampling young voters and cell phone users. One of the big challenges in telephone polling today is that so many voters 35 and under do not have conventional land line phones. Polling he has seen that includes more cell phone users is more favorable to Democrats.<\/p>\n
Priebus: \u201cTrends matter. I don\u2019t see any trends away from Republicans right now.\u201d\u00a0 Tate, he said, was grasping for straws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Near the end of Tuesday\u2019s \u201cOn the Issues with Mike Gousha\u201d session at the Law School, Gousha asked Mike Tate, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, and Reince\u00a0 Priebus, chair of the Wisconsin Republican Party, whether they thought candidates can win while running positive campaigns. Neither directly answered the question from Gousha, the Law School\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-processes-rhetoric","category-speakers","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}