Time and time again, the one who hurls the mud wins. Fair or not, negative campaigning does work.
Except when it doesn't.
When doesn't it work? When you've had the mud hurled on you already by the other guy and you try using the same mud you've scraped off yourself to fling back at him.
No one will believe it.
I've been on both ends of this. In one campaign, my candidate showed the truth behind who was supporting the other guy. One piece of mail, pointing out his long list of corporate donors. His reaction was to accuse her of having corporate donors too. Trouble was, she only had two and they were mom and pops as opposed to multinationals and hedge fund managers.
He looked petty and she won.
In another race, the other guy made stuff up, but it sounded bad. So my guy (and I wasn't the one making the decisions this time, by the way), said, not me, that's you. And it was true but too late and too little and too snarky. My guy lost, badly, because the first guy was nastier and tapped into people's fears.
But, you say, what are you supposed to do when you get unfairly attacked? Fight back, but do it cleverly - call them out for calling you out. What are they afraid of? Do they think your support for higher taxes will mean they will go broke? Really, pitting safe roads and cops on the street against more profits in some corporate coffers?
We did it with a candidate who was getting blamed for all the ills of the District, most of which were completely out of his control. Let's tell the truth, he said, let's shine a light on the underbelly of the other guy's campaign. Oh look, it's crawling with lies. Deflect, expose, document, and use humor when you do it.
Don't be snarky. Don't say him too! Don't make stuff up.
And if you're running against an incumbent, you have to do this. You have to tell the voters why they should fire him and hire you. Just do it with class.
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