A new TV ad released Tuesday morning by Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock is drawing criticism from the top elected official in his own party: Lt. Gov. Phil Scott.
“I’ve never bought into the notion that negative campaigning is something Vermonters necessarily want to see,” Scott says. “I’m sure there’s some portions of the ad that are accurate. It’s, I guess, the innuendos. It just seems a little over-the-top to me. I’m not comfortable with that kind of thing.”
Brock’s 30-second ad brutally slams his Democratic opponent, Gov. Peter Shumlin, on everything from land deals to out-of-state travel to “thousands of taxpayer dollars spent to settle undisclosed discrimination and misconduct allegations.”
Here, watch it for yourself:
Scott says he first saw the ad during an editorial board meeting with the Barre/Montpelier Times-Argus and the Rutland Herald Tuesday afternoon. He says it reminded him of the nasty 2010 gubernatorial campaign between Shumlin and former lieutenant governor Brian Dubie.
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Not a good way to remember Randy Brock, but it is of his own choosing. Too bad. Not a good way to end a political career.
As a political observer, and not in a partisan way, my sense is that attack ads backfire in Vermont. And higher the attack to facts ratio, the more they backfire.
Remember the guy whose ads implied Bernie Sanders was in favor of rape?
I kind of don’t; I can’t recall his name. But I do remember the fact that Sanders was declared the winner 1 minute after the polls closed.
So this looks counter-productive to me.
kudos to Scott. That is taking the high road. Brock is stooping to new lows.
Wendy Wilton will go down in the same pile of flames.
Glad to see that this kind of campaigning backfires- I wonder if Scott would have resisted Vermonter First money and the negative campaigning if he actually had to try in his campaign.