Dirty Politics Backfire?

Back in 2012 I wrote a post about how boring the television coverage of the Republican and Democratic Conventions had become, compared to what I remember from my childhood.

Well, one thing's for sure, the TV coverage of the Republican and Democratic DEBATES has been far from boring! The level of name calling, crude language, and hateful speech seems to have escalated beyond anything before. That's probably not true, but it sure seems that way. I'll leave that call to the true historians.

We live in a state where the incumbent Senator has been in office since Moses, and for the first time in memory he is scrambling to defeat a young whippersnapper of an opponent.

And, likely following the lead of the presidential primary races, the local TV advertisements have become decidedly "dirty politics". I WAS still debating on voting on the incumbent, mainly because of his position on some powerful committees, or voting for "new blood", figuring it was time for new ideas.

But the incumbent has released a particularly nasty TV advertisement that just hits me the wrong way, and it had the exact opposite effect the candidate intended. It has tipped me over to the young candidate.

So how about you? Are you willing to gloss over the offensive speech of these heated campaigns, or do you get swayed to vote more "against" one candidate, rather than a true "for" another one? Do the robo-calls, television advertisements, billboards, etc., sway you? Or is it the substance of what the candidate says he or she will do once they are in office?