State Democratic Party Chair Jerry Meek sent an email out Tuesday afternoon about alleged “dirty tricks” by Republicans at early voting sites in Chapel Hill. Meek said he had received reports that Republicans were misleading voters into thinking that the judicial candidates listed on a flyer were Democrats, not Republicans, in what are supposed to nonpartisan judicial elections.
If the reports are true, Republicans are indeed using dirty tricks to help their candidates for judgeships and they ought to be called on it. But as the election season winds to a close, both parties are exhibiting the kind of behavior that not only turns off voters, but makes a rational policy debate after the election much less likely.
You read here Friday about the offensive statements made by Republican House candidate Marge Carpenter who said that children of undocumented immigrants were using forged immunization records to get into school and then were spreading diseases.
That despicable comment at least received some media attention. Republican candidates have also been criticized for using the disparaging term “illegals” to describe undocumented immigrants.
Political prognosticators believe Democratic House candidate Greer Beaty has a chance to unseat incumbent Republican Nelson Dollar and she has been positioning herself as the more progressive candidate, at least most of the time.
The N.C. Democratic Party recently sent out a direct mail piece authorized by Beaty that talks about her plan to crack down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants. But that’s not the language the ad uses. The tag line says “because our tax dollars shouldn’t be used to subsidize illegals.”
That’s not exactly a slogan progressive voters will rally around. In fact, many are upset by the ad but it is the kind of approach used across the state and around the country, most often in mailers that are not as widely discussed as television ads.
Beaty’s latest ad blasts Dollar for taking part in a taxpayer funded ferry cruise during the Tall Ships event at the coast on the 4th of July weekend. Legislators of both parties and lobbyists were among the guests on the cruise that included music and fancy food. The ferry used was taken out of service resulting in long lines for motorists at a regular ferry stop.
The N.C. Republican Party blasted the cruise in July as a taxpayer financed boondoggle, but the realization that Republican legislators were on board weakened the impact of the attacks. The fact that Democratic legislators were on the cruise didn’t stop Beaty, making you wonder if she is as angry at her Democratic colleagues who were on the boat as she is at Dollar.
It is a good bet there are more flyers from candidates of both political parties that try to scare and mislead voters using faulty logic or damaging stereotypes. Political consultants defend this offensive kind of campaigning with a philosophy that boils down to the ends justify the means, that candidates can’t do anything for anyone unless they are elected.
The problem is these kinds of campaigns make it harder to have a productive debate once the campaign is over. Governor Mike Easley attacked his opponent in 2004 for proposals that Easley said would lead to tax increases and for voting for budgets that increased state spending.
The message being of course that taxes are always bad and the state budget spends too much money. That’s not true of course and it’s an especially odd message from a Democratic Governor who has occasionally and correctly supported tax increases when they were needed.
Now it is immigrants and boat cruises, at least that we know of. Complaining about “tax dollars subsidizing illegals” makes a sane debate about immigration that much harder. So do absurd and unfounded claims about immigrants spreading diseases. Those are the real “dirty tricks” of this campaign, ones that do the most long lasting damage to our state.
