IT'S ON! GOP Plans to 'Get Personal' in Last 60 Days with $45M Attack Ads [View All]

Bring it on, you bastards! We're not bending over for it this time!


Washington Post: 'GOP plans to get personal' in final 60 days of fall elections campaigning

RAW STORY
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Washington_Post_GOP_plans_to_get_0909.html

The Republican Party 'plans to get personal' in the final 60 days of fall elections campaigning, according to a front page article in Sunday's Washington Post.

"Republicans are planning to spend the vast majority of their sizable financial war chest over the final 60 days of the campaign attacking Democratic House and Senate candidates over personal issues and local controversies, GOP officials said," report Jim VandeHei and Chris Cillizza for the Post.

"The National Republican Congressional Committee, which this year dispatched a half-dozen operatives to comb through tax, court and other records looking for damaging information on Democratic candidates, plans to spend more than 90 percent of its $50 million-plus advertising budget on what officials described as negative ads," the article continues.

Excerpts from the Post article:

The hope is that a vigorous effort to "define" opponents, in the parlance of GOP operatives, can help Republicans shift the midterm debate away from Iraq and limit losses this fall. The first round of attacks includes an ad that labeled a Democratic candidate in Wisconsin "Dr. Millionaire" and noted that he has sued 80 patients.

"Opposition research is power," said Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (N.Y.), the NRCC chairman. "Opposition research is the key to defining untested opponents."

"When you run in an adverse political environment, you try to localize and personalize the race as much as you can," Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said.

In a memo released last week, Cole, who is running to succeed Reynolds at the NRCC, expanded on that strategy. The memo recommended that vulnerable incumbents spend $20,000 on a research "package" to find damaging material about challengers and urged that they "define your opponent immediately and unrelentingly."

* Full Unquotable Rag article here http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/09/AR2006090901079_pf.html