Uh-oh! Everywhere Kay Hagan goes, she sees the Kochtopus. And we’re about to be seeing even more of this foul creature too, on television. The Susan B. Anthony List just made a $100,000 buy against Kay Hagan, attacking her for her support of “painful, late-term abortions.” $100,000 is not very much, so this could be something like a test run to see if the issue resonates.
Hagan campaign spokeswoman Sadie Weiner (no relation to this Weiner) noted that the ad is from “yet another Koch-affiliated group” and is just a “distraction” from Tillis’s dismal record on women’s health. It looks like it’s full-speed ahead on this whole attack-the-Koch-brothers thing. Modeled, of course, after the successful strategy in North Carolina demonizing Art Pope, which sparked a massive backlash against GOP lawmakers and led to Democrats taking back control of the General Assembly in 2012.
This whole Koch brothers thing just isn’t going to work. When people hear that your campaign is being funded by billionaires, or something, the reaction is: “So what?” You have to prove that these billionaires are really nefarious or something. Like they’re Nazis or something. That’s a whole lot of extra work for a political campaign. And it’s not like voters just hear “Koch brothers” and then dismiss whatever message they’re trying to disseminate. The message is still there, and unless it’s an outright lie it needs to be addressed.
Now, as for the ad itself … well, the story is amazing and everything. But the attack on Kay Hagan’s position seems like an afterthought. Also, what happened to negative ads with scary music and a foreboding narrator? Has research found that this no longer works or something? Also, just how many swing voters are out there who could be persuaded to vote against Kay Hagan based on abortion? It seems voters who really care about restricting abortions are already in the GOP tent. It could be an effort to mobilize Christian conservatives, or to shield Tillis from attacks on the same issue. And even if it doesn’t persuade anyone, it’s still a better strategy than going after the Koch brothers.
John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.
“…And it’s not like voters just hear “Koch brothers” and then dismiss whatever message they’re trying to disseminate….”
Why not, I do. And if the Koch brothers and Koch Industries are such pious and wholesome people, you can’t prove it with the in-fighting among their siblings, by the things that they say they stand for, nor the organizations they use as mouthpieces to spew their sound byte feces across the state. And now, I’m seeing ads in the Eastern media markets telling us how big of a footprint Koch Industries has and who some of the corporations are under their umbrella. Oh, and how they employ ‘X’ number of people.
Seems to me Koch Industries and the brothers are trying to polish up thier image a little bit just like Duke Energy is talking about how environmentally friendly and concerned they are about people and the environment; really.
Fascism is the believe in the merging between business and government. The koch brothers buy politicians like the NC GOP and Scott Walker and expect a tidy return on their investment, which they get.
I’m fairly well educated and have never been called dumb by those who know me. And I do think going after the Koch Brothers for their attack ads is not the best strategy for Hagan to follow. But honestly, the point of this article seems soft and hard to pin down.
The comment by Sadie Weiner about the SBA ad and the Kochs seems to be the pretext for the article. But that’s just a comment and not a point made in any formal Hagan ad or response. Pretty thin pretext for an article, I’s say.
And if one is OK by what the Kochs are or do politically with their money, why even use the term Kochtopus? If it’s used to be sarcastic, the sarcasm stream is pretty thin.
And why use the term Nazis at all? It’s never a good idea.
And the aside/link about Anthony Weiner is just a badly-fitting, childish, silly stretch.
And then at the end, the article criticizes the SBA ad?
Really, John, try to get your thoughts together before writing something so meandering.