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NEGATIVE POLITICS WORKS…
By Michael B. Brodkorb | January 4, 2008
Just ask Ray Cox and the Minnesota DFL. Cox was defeating by DFL candidate Kevin Dahle in the SD 25 special election. The DFL spent money on negative mailings and negative radio ads in the final days of this campaign. According to sources close to the race, the DFL didn't spend any money on promoting a positive message about Dahle.
Topics: Kevin Dahle, Ray Cox | 34 Comments »
January 4th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Would you care for some cheese to go with that whine?
January 4th, 2008 at 2:00 am
I was waiting on the edge of my seat for you to come up with an excuse. Thanks for pulling through.
Seriously. This is the best you can do?
January 4th, 2008 at 2:03 am
I have in theory the real excuse. When voters are given two Democrats they will vote for the real Democrat every time. A lot of people said that Cox behaved like a Democrat. So naturally they decided to vote for the Democrat.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
January 4th, 2008 at 2:08 am
So…negative ads are bad? Ok. I’ll keep that in mind as the Senate race gets underway. I’ll be waiting for the positive message about Coleman and a lack of Franken, Ciresi, or Pallmeyer bashing.
And kudos to Dahle. Even “paltry fundraising” (Brodkorb’s words) couldn’t save the GOP in a GOP seat.
January 4th, 2008 at 2:12 am
I’m not making excuses, nor am I whining. I just stated that negative politics works. I never said that negative politics was bad either, I just said that negative politics works. The Dahle-Cox race was a clear example of how paid negative ads and mailings work.
January 4th, 2008 at 4:32 am
Walter,
The Republican half of Cox’s district came in solidly for Cox. He was leading the election until the City of Northfield precincts came in. For some reason, Northfield’s precincts didn’t come in until last – and until some 90 minutes after all of the other precincts in the district were accounted for.
Don’t believe that Republicans weren’t for Cox. Northfield is the same bastion of Socialism today that created Paul Wellstone in 1990.
January 4th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Michael, of COURSE you’ve never said going negative is bad; without going negative, the GOPers would never win.
And it never amazes me how much GOPer wusses whine when The Dark Arts they have perfected, are used against them.
It’s just one more reason GOP now stands for GreedOverPrinciples.
January 4th, 2008 at 6:48 am
So basically you’re just trying to pitch your site a little more.
January 4th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Part of the blame goes to Pawlenty.
The area was begging him to do the appointment earlier, but he waited just long enough for the liberal latte group to return.
And as other have pointed out.
When given a choice people vote for a real DFL vs. DFL lite.
Liberals turned out for there candidate.
Conservatives did just enough. Don’t recall any conservatives getting excited about Ray, while the commie-kiddie were all excited about there candidate.
Now maybe he will disappear and the party will learn something from it – Are you listening CD3??
But no we will get another RINO with the, “he can win the district” line and have another defeat.
January 4th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Out-smarted, out-flanked and outworked in SD25
http://wrightrepublican.blogspot.com/2008/01/out-smarted-out-flanked-and-out-worked.html
January 4th, 2008 at 8:40 am
Of course negative politics works. The GOP has perfected it from Donald Segretti to Lee Atwater on to the master himself, Karl Rove.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:10 am
The title should read “Bordkorb Never at a Loss for Excuses”
January 4th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Maybe Govenor Pawlenty should have spent some time campaigning in Northfield and New Prague and not New Hampshire and Iowa. His ambition is getting in the way and now the Senate is veto proof. A governor who never won 50% of the vote, lost the house majority and gave the DFL a veto proof majority. Sounds like VP material to me.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:13 am
If the author of this blog objects to negative politics, perhaps he can find a new line of work.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:26 am
The republican half of the district did vote for Cox but not overwhelmingly. These rural townships/precints went for Dahle:
Bridgewater
Dundas
Shieldsville
Northfield township
Whelling township was 50/50
January 4th, 2008 at 9:40 am
My take: (I am a solid conservative GOPer)
This was a swing / slightly GOP district. On paper a tossup. The city of Northfield makes it very tough to win this and the fact that Neuville held onto it for so long had more to do with incumbancy than party.
The rest of the district is not a great GOP area either. Le Seuer and Sibley counties are mixed, not great GOP areas.
Having said all that, this is a very good win for the DFL and a bad loss for the GOP. The GOP had name id and more money. The GOP had held the seat. At least they maybe could have held on in a close election. The DFL won by a wide margin. Not good.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:47 am
A couple of other thoughts. The real difference was Northfield. Dahle won huge in Northfield. But Cox had to know that would happen and plan for it. Fact is Cox did not win big enough in places like Belle Plaine and New Prague to offset Northfield.
Also, Cox did not do well enough in Le Seuer and rural Le Seuer county and tthe small towns.
Tough loss for GOP.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:53 am
The real lesson: RINOs are suicide for the GOP.
Put a real center-right conservative with a real vision out there, rather than a Sturdevant-Approved (R) hamster, and you have a shot.
What Sam said. You listening, CD3GOP?
January 4th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Good point — and remember Cox was moderate enough that the Strib endoresed him. Yikes!
January 4th, 2008 at 10:28 am
With their ground game and strategery they could have run a shetland pony and won.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Is the party listening now? I doubt it.
Bad news for ‘08.
You can’t replace a common-sense conservative with a moderate Republican and ask GOP volunteers and activists to be excited about it. Without excitement and energy, you will lose every time.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:49 am
What are examples of the “negative ads” that were run in this election?
Sounds to me like the democrats just out-worked the republicans in this race.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:59 am
This is a serious and valuable lesson for the Republican Party of MN, MN Senate Republicans and conservatives of all stripes.
There were serious missteps in this campaign that centered around a fundamentally flawed, MN GOP-endorsed candidate.
District 25A (the western half) is far more conservative as exhibited by Rep. Laura Brod carrying a 57% vote to win in ‘06.
District 25B includes the two bastions of liberalism (St. Olaf & Carleton) and the City of Northfield that Tom Neuville himself—never even carried. Moreover, Cox lost the District back in ‘06 to a DFL challenger that had failed in his two previous attempts.
Mathematically, Cox could’ve won, if his moderate-Republican views would appeal to some perrenial undecided voters.
Therein lies the problem, which Drew Emmer does a fine job of explaining in his column linked above.
Early on in the primaries and endorsing process, there were several reports that some folks in 25A were not excited about Ray Cox running as a Republican to replace Neuville, who was someone who they could count on to vote conservatively for them—for the last 17 years.
Along comes Ray Cox, the annointed candidate who espouses “fiscal responsibility.”
Yet–during the 2006 legislative session, Cox scored a 26 out of 100 on the Taxpayer’s League Scorecard. That is dismal, miserable and dissappointing at best to say about someone running with an “R” next to his/her name.
To me—it is non-negotiable and I would’ve stayed home from the polls just like an awful lot of conservatives did yesterday in District 25.
Moreover, the Star Tribune endorsed Ray Cox. This speaks volumes when one of the top 10 most liberal newspapers in the nation endorses a Republican running for anything. His candidacy, his record and his positions on the major issues facing the taxpayers of Minnesota should be considered suspect at best.
Then, we actually sit down to read the endorsement from the Strib and all of the glowing words thay had to say about Cox’s bills that he has championed in the past.
To read that Cox not only supported the DREAM Act is disheartening—but to read that he signed on to it and carried the bill in the house should make each and every conservative sick.
This is another issue that to me—is non negotiable.
The MN GOP Party, Ron Carey and the Senate Republicans need to understand that selling out your principles and issue platform in the name of victory will not cut it for voters who care about major spending issues and want representation from a State Senator they can count on.
Voters in SD 25 knew that Tom Neuville was going to vote conservatively. Whether they agreed with him or not, they knew what they were getting with Neuville and they trusted him and liked him. They liked him in the job for the past 17 years.
Principles don’t mean anything if you aren’t willing to stick by them when times are inconvenient.
The MN GOP and some Senate Republicans found out the hard way.
1,577 votes is a pretty convincing slap in the face.
Start giving the voters with serious candidates with serious credentials and maybe we’ll turn out to vote.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Umm…for all of those GOP Kool-aid drinkers, who railed on me for warning you about Cox and the fact that this limp-wristed noodle was WORTHLESS and a LOSER:
I TOLD YOU SO. I warned you about this guy, who voted to nail Hennepin County for Uncle Carl, his voting history, his endorsements…
And I specifically said, give the voters the choice between DFL-lite and real DFL…they vote DFL every time.
Perhaps we will learn from this. I doubt it. Timmy is too busy sniffing McCain’s crotch to pay any attention.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Wow!! A week or two ago “D” received a tongue lashing for saying the same thing about this rino that that seems to be common speak today.
Crossing lines to pick up moderate votes will only lose your base. Plain and simple. If your message is provided clearly and with a common sense approach, many moderates will follow without having to give up your principles.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:38 am
As someone who volunteered a handful of times for Ray Cox I don’t blame the Republican Party one bit for this. I only saw one or two people at any given time from that Senate Republican caucus and it was always a staff volunteer, never a Senator.
The Senate Republicans shit the bed here once again. They are full of a bunch of blow hards (and I fear this is happening party wide amongst our officials) who love to talk strategy and how they have all the answers but don’t do a damn thing when it comes time for actual work.
I’m tired of know-it-alls who are willing to criticize and comment but when it comes down to it they aren’t going to put anything into the end result. The Senate Repubs got what they deserved.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I think this is just another example of Ron Careys leadership or should I say lack of leadership. The House lost the majority and the senate republicans went in four years from formidable to why bother show up.
January 4th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Wasn’t DJ Danielson part of the Independence party a couple of years ago?
January 4th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
is MrMustang Joe Schomacher?
January 4th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I would like to point out to BP that there were Republican State Senators working on the election. Some were down in SD 25 door-knocking and some in St. Paul making calls. Senators worked hard to put together the campaign efforts and raise money for the campaign. Just to let BP know we all lose – not just the Republican Senators!
January 4th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
As a student of elections in SD25 I have to admit even I was surprised by the magnitude of Dahle’s victory, but not the fact that he won. The DFL quite simply out worked Cox. The DFL was also able to get behind their endorsed candidate – even after a pretty fractious and divisive endorsement. Those not endorsed actually worked for Dahle’s campaign, something I’m pretty sure Cox’s primary opponents didn’t do. It was so clear Cox thought the seat was his for the asking.
News flash MDE: when you have your candidate (Cox) on the radio and in the newspapers whining about negative attacks and that he would NEVER have anything to do with such a thing…etc…And you get home from work and find some piece of crap negative mailing that clearly takes things the other candidate said out of context to smear him…well blatant hypocrisy does not attract voters. More than one Republican-inclined voter mentioned this very thing to me.
Go Dahle! That’s 2 seats down in SD25 and one more to go with Brod.
January 5th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
The MN State Senate GOP Caucus couldn’t campaign if their life depended on it. Even while GOP were taking over the MN House, where was the GOP Senate Caucus, lagging behind as usual. At least one thing still works for them, they consistently underperform at every opportunity. New year, different race, same result, a loss!!! If true that no other GOP State Senators helped out, then they are truly idiots (not sure of that one, but wouldn’t surprise me). Oh yeah, I live in the land of SD47, where we have St. Sen. Foley who managed to survive twice despite not even going door to door, and being a complete wallflower. I don’t Foley even knows where Brooklyn Park is, sure the hell hasn’t never done anything for the City. The fact the State Senate GOP caucus has blown another one doesn’t surprise me at all.
And guess what fellow GOPers, either get used to the attack ads or find a new passion, cause they are not going away. Bemoaning them while getting our ass kicked across the state will do nothing to make changes. We need to change to fit the new rules.
January 6th, 2008 at 6:06 am
Would a post card that said:
***
“For years they said: Stay The Course! Stay The Course!! Stay The Course!!! Stay The Course! Stay The Course!! Stay The Course!!! Stay The Course! Stay The Course!! Stay The Course!!! Stay The Course! Stay The Course!! Stay The Course!!! Stay The Course! Stay The Course!! Stay The Course!!!
But then, suddenly, Boy Blunder said: “Hey, we’ve NEVER been Stay The Course!”
The Truth? You simply can’t believe a republiCon. Ever. About anything.
***
Would that be considered an attack ad?
January 7th, 2008 at 10:29 am
[...] Dahle’s victory has set off a string of recriminations among Republican Party activists, one side accusing the other of not helping enough and the other complaining about a closed process that produced a weak candidate. In the mix are (of course) remonstrations that the DFL played negative politics to the bitter end on behalf of Dahle. Senator-elect Dahle, for his part, managed to stay positive throughout the short campaign, and now heads to St. Paul as part of a veto-proof majority. [...]