Ad: "Taking Out the Trash"
About This Ad | Watch the Video »
» Candidate/Organization: Michael Steele
» Other Candidates Mentioned: Ben Cardin
» Year: 2006
» State: Maryland
» Race: Senate, District N/A (About This Race)
» Party: Republican
» Funded by: Candidate
» Disseminations: TV, Web
Ad Content
» Cues: Candidate Present, Washington Outsider
» Issues: anti-incumbent, Bipartisanship, Corruption, Values
» Tone: Negative
» Types: Attack
» Narrator: No
» Language: English
Analysis
Steele's second new ad in the Washington market in two weeks picks up on a theme he has been hitting throughout the campaign – that his opponent and the Democratic Party, in particular, are engaging in “trash” politics.
The assertion that “Ben Cardin’s team” hacked into Steele’s credit report is not technically correct. A former researcher for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is certainly working to elect Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D), pleased guilty last year to fraudulently obtaining the lieutenant governor’s credit report. No one in Cardin’s campaign was implicated.
The vague reference to “personal smears” is mean to evoke what Steele, the first African American elected to statewide office, has said are race-based insults from Democrats. In one instance last month, Cardin fired a junior staffer after the campaign discovered that she was keeping an online diary about her experience. The entries contained racial and ethnic slurs.
Whenever possible, Cardin mentions Steele’s name in the same sentence with the unpopular president. Steele is presenting himself as an independent thinker in the overwhelmingly Democratic state. But he has not disputed Cardin’s assertion that he supports the president’s position on issues such as the Iraq war, stem cell research and abortion.
As a newcomer to elected office, Steele is also trying to turn Cardin’s four decades in office into a weakness by portraying him as an entrenched insider. Cardin has pointed out that even in a partisan Congress, he has worked across party lines to craft tax and retirement saving legislation that became law.
-- Ann E. Marimow
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