If Thom Tillis wins the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in May and avoids a runoff, the Washington Democratic political strategists get at least a little credit. On the stump, Tillis is crowing about being the only candidate attacked by Democrats. He’s increasingly making the case that he’s the best candidate to take on Hagan and he’s citing the attacks as evidence.
It’s not just that they are hitting Tillis, it’s that they are hitting him on the wrong things. His primary challengers are criticizing him for character and ideological issues. They’ve questioned his conservative credentials, criticized his handling of a sex scandal and accused him of profiting from his position as Speaker.
The big money Democrats, though, thought it was more important to attack Tillis for being too close to the Koch brothers and opposing Obamacare. Instead of piggy-backing on the news cycle and the public conversation about the GOP primary, they tried to jump start their own conversation about Tillis with relatively small TV buys. It failed.
What if they had run an ad called Who is Thom Tillis? They could cite evidence of him trying to be a moderate, like saying Obamacare was a good idea without enough money, and then cite him defending his conservative bonafides by calling for full repeal. There are numerous other examples of his hypocrisy. They go to character, not issues, and they cross party lines. Nobody wants to elect a flip-flopper and pander bear.
Unfortunately, that’s not how the Washington establishment views the race. No, they see it as a national ideological battle with little difference separating the voters or political environments in swing states. They don’t understand, or don’t believe in, nuance, so they resort to blunt instruments.
In their world, Thom Tillis is already the nominee and the GOP primary is just a formality. The real race is about the national issues that dominate the attention of the DC political establishment and poll high in national surveys. Ironically, it’s a provincial view of politics.
As for politics and campaigning, Washington is a town of convention, not innovation. The nationalization of political campaigns promotes uniformity while ignoring regional and local diversity. In a year when Democrats need to distinguish themselves from the national environment and, in many cases, localize their races, the DC political class offers little help.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
I like following up on the sex scandal in his office. The primary needs some sex brought in. So far all we good to discuss is the jury that did not believe Brannon. Juries are fine for the legal eagles but the rest of us still like the sex angle. Sex sells. Now if the National Enquirer can get hold of Tillis holding a baby like they did with Senator John Edwards then the race will explode. When you get caught holding the baby, well, that is something you cannot deny. The jury is still out on the sex angle but it would play well among the conservative voters who still care about sex. It is a dead issue for the Democrats.
Agreed. The Dems should be following up on and reinforcing every criticism of Tillis that his GOP primary opponents make. The strategy should be not to paint him as the likely opponent to Kagan, but rather as a candidate with obvious shortcomings from a fractured party, and let those in his own party identify those shortcomings. That process would generate much fodder to use against him in the November election. The aim should be to force a post-primary run-off. If that happens, Tillis will need to defend himself from further snipes from his own party brethren, and to further spend from his war chest.
The intention is to paint him as the front runner with out damaging him so badly he looses the primary…If he looses the Primary… Moral Mondays is for naught. The last thing the left wants to do is loose their fabricated voter turn out machine
Its not the first time the left has chosen their weakest opponent.
Who is stronger than Tillis? The preacher? The stock defendant? The lady?
I still think Tillis is the front runner in the primary.