Negative wins the Battle
By Amit Singh | Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 | PoliticsIt was eerily reminiscent watching the VA-08 GOP Congressional Primary election results coming in last night. Matthew Berry did well in Arlington and Alexandria but eventually lost ground in Fairfax. Berry had a great campaign that focused on attacking Moran’s corrupt practices, providing real solutions to our current problems, and raising over $150K which to my knowledge is more than anyone has ever raised in the GOP primary in VA-08. Essentially, Berry ran the campaign that Republicans say they want.
On the flip side, I had to laugh when I read on Patrick Murray’s website that he will “treat my opponent according to the Golden Rule.” Murray raised less than a third of what Berry raised but instead of investing in multiple issue-based mailers promoting himself, he took a play straight out of the Mike Lane playbook and dropped a very misleading negative attack on Berry in the eleventh hour. It was bad enough that even the Washington Post noticed. Having been victim to similar tactics in 2008, I know there is very little to nothing one can do counteract the misinformation.
Going negative comes at a price. While Ellmore won the 2008 primary, his tactics ended up losing him the support from many of the local Republicans who had endorsed him which in turn handed Moran his largest margin of victory since 1996. I for one will still vote for Murray in November but will not spend my money and weekends on a campaign that relies on distorting the facts.
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19 Responses to "Negative wins the Battle"
So if you’re voting for Murray in November, you’re just showing him that there’s really no consequence from Republicans for that kind of behavior. Which just encourages it more. So really, he did the right thing in the GOP world. Good, uh, job.
my disgust for Moran far outweighs my disappointment in Murray so I’m not really rewarding Murray for what he did. In fact, he is losing my campaign contribution and volunteer hours so I am basically trying to discourage other candidates in future primaries from doing the same thing. and its really not a GOP or Dem thing for me, lying is lying and the more it happens the more the general population gets disenchanted with politicians.
Agree with Amit 100% here. Visit http://rednova8.com for more commentary on this.
Given that there’s something approaching absolute zero chance that your vote for Murray will have an impact on Moran, then why still vote for him? In the end, Murray will still be able to point to a vote total that is increased by your vote, and say “See, this is what my campaign earned.” I mean, if you want to reward that kind of campaign, go ahead. But I don’t think it does anyone any good.
I vote because it is my civic duty. perhaps if a 3rd party candidate who was really good popped up then I would vote for them but I think its too late for that. I don’t really do write-in votes because I can never choose between Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck.
A little message for Mike Lane, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpZm1TstpjQ
I’ve finally unmasked you. Everyone knows that Mickey “Eternal Copyright, B)(*hes” Mouse is a real capitalist, and that Donald Duck is a dithering fool. If you don’t know who to pick there . . .
But note that Moran has a regular undervote in comparison to other Dems on the ballot. That’s because there are a fair number of people in the district that are unhappy with him, have no serious alternatives, and yet still decline to vote for him. That’s the number he (and other possible primary challengers) is watching.
Amit, unfortunately I am going to have the same criticism for Berry that I had after your campaign two years ago.
I agree that this race looks very much like a redux of Singh-Ellmore. The difference is the loss, although punctuated by the last minute negative campaigning, is actually due to a failure of boots on the ground campaigning in Fairfax County. This district is far more than just Arlington and Alexandria.
Arlington and Alexandria are littered with apartment buildings, and condominiums where door to door campaigning is generally prohibited, and certainly unreliable in identifying Republican voters. The Fairfax portion of the District has significant numbers of single family homes and townhouses where door to door campaigning is allowed. Further, people in single family and townhouses tend to stay in place for longer periods. For the primary one simply needs to use the voter lists of previous republican primary voters, go to where they live, and say hello. It’s hard to vote against somebody you have met, after meeting only one of two candidates in person.
Amit, honestly you had zero presence out in Fairfax county two years ago from what I could tell. This year Berry sent some mailers. Murray got a hold of my email address, and managed to robocall me. More importantly Murray had signs all over Reston, and was physically in the Fairfax part of the district during the waning days so much, that Reston democrats I knew asked me who he was. He appeared to be the front runner where I live.
The last minute negativism did not win Murray the nomination, it simply turned off a lot of Berry supporters. And now you and I are left in the same position as two years ago, without our preferred candidate, and a poor opinion of the nominee.
I voted for you Amit but didn’t realize you were such a novice and a baby. Politics is a bloodsport. Welcome to the big leagues. Fortunately you have come out to support Murray in the general unlike your sour grapes pal Angela Desrochers who declared on her FB page she will write-in Berry’s name. Grow up people.
Murray’s campaign was disgraceful. Many of us will not forget the slimy tactics used against Berry in this primary, but what we will forget is to cast our vote on the first Tuesday in November. I hope Murray and Lane enjoy their Pyrrhic victory. Let’s see how that works out for them.
Please join me in the “Principles above Party” Coalition in support of 8th District Libertarian Candidate Matthew Mosley – http://www.mosley2010.com/ – he is our BEST chance for 2010!
As a die-hard Republican, I know that your candidate doesn’t always win. Last night my candidate, Berry, did not. I also know that upon losing you pause for a moment and then shift gears to throw your support behind the winner. In the end, we’re all Republicans, right?
Well not this time for me. I saw the ugly, inside game Murray put up especially the final 96hrs and I refuse to reward that with my vote in the fall. While I won’t vote for Moran either, I half hope Moran’s staff hears all of this about Murray and that he ultimately gets what’s coming to him.
Lying to the electorate is not OK. I absolutely refuse to tolerate it.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Elizabeth, Nathan Parsons. Nathan Parsons said: RT @DCGopGirl: Pretty much sums up last night: http://bearingdrift.com/2010/06/09/negative-wins-the-battle [...]
@Dave, thanks for your vote but it is precisely because I’m not a novice or a baby that I want to hold GOP politicians to a higher standard. if they fail that standard I will not support them with my wallet. perhaps cheating is the norm in the NFL but doesn’t mean I’m going to shrug my shoulders at the Patriots.
@Reston Libertarian, agreed. There were two factors that led to that. First, due to a scheduling screw-up I missed the Fairfax GOP Convention which is very important. Second, hardly any of my volunteers actually had cars and were essentially metro limited. we obviously didn’t do enough to mitigate that. regardless you should have received my mailers/robocalls and would have seen me at the Reston GOP meetings (I love the cheese dip they serve there)
i do remember that cheese dip
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bearing Drift, Reston Towncenter. Reston Towncenter said: Reston Town Center Negative wins the Battle | Bearing Drift: Virginia Politics On Demand: More importantly Murray … http://bit.ly/bpko8g [...]
Reston Libertarian, I was one Berry supporter who put his boots on the ground – and a lot of gas in my car. I personally delivered Berry literature to over 200 individual homes (not apartments) in my little square on the map. When I ran out of literature to drop I still had 70 more addresses on the five page list Elizabeth had given me. I lost 15 lbs in the heat and humidity on Sat and Sun and Mon before election day. Having said all that, I also would usually say “congrats” to the winner and support him (anybody but the Moron!) in November. . . . . . . This may be the first time in my 65 years of never missing the chance to do my civic duty to vote that I MAY decide to forego that duty – purely as a protest of J. (anybody know what J stands for?) Patrick Murray did in his last minute Tweets. I really did think better of him after having met him three times in three different settings. So much for the honor of an Army officer. I decided on supporting Matthew Berry purely on the basis of his positions and how they meant he would make a better Congressman. Murray never showed me anything on that score. On to 2012. Oh, and I will use my money to support more deserving candidates, elsewhere.
Not having known the candidates, I attended several debates between Berry and Murray. Very quickly it became apparent that Berry was much more prepared and presented himself well as a candidate to take on and beat Moran in the 8th. Murray disappointed by never having specifics of what he would do and just harped on his military background.
Murray should be proud of his military service. He should be ashamed, however, of his campaign. Having to fall back on personal attacks and falsehoods is unbecoming of any code of honor.
After 35 years of loyally voting Republican, this republican will be voting for the Libertarian candidate in November. I will also be engaging friends and neighbors to stay away from J. Patrick Murray’s campaign between now and November.
Hahahaha, like any of this matters. Moran is unbeatable unless he is tossed out of office or resigns. Keep bickering amongst yourselves 8th District GOP’ers. No one is listening to your whining.
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