Now this is a negative ad! Rep. Tim Huelskamp faces a credible challenge in the August GOP primary from physician Roger Marshall in Kansas’ safely red 1st Congressional District, and Huelskamp is going on the offensive with a spot that utilizes a recording of a 911 call from 2008 to argue that Marshall is dangerous and unfit for office.
The commercial features a man telling the dispatcher, “I’ve got Dr. Marshall over here trespassing. He just about ran over me.” The operator then says, “Have a report of a possible trespassing, RP [reporting party] is advising he was almost run over by subject last name Marshall.” The narrator goes on to say, “In a violent rage, Dr. Roger Marshall almost ran down and seriously injured his neighbor and fled the scene of his crime. Lawbreakers belong in jail, not Congress.”
The Hutchinson News gives us the background to this unexpected saga. According to court documents, Marshall and the 911 caller, Randy Suchy, had feuded over property issues. After the incident, Marshall was initially charged with battery and reckless driving. The battery charge was later dropped, but Marshall pled no contest to reckless driving and was given a five-day suspended jail sentence plus a $225 fine. According to KWCH12, the reckless driving charge was also subsequently reduced to “failure to exercise due care in regard to a pedestrian,” and Marshall’s fine was cut to $45. It appears the jail sentence may also have been dropped. No matter the details, the story doesn’t make Marshall look good.
Marshall is also out with his own spot, but it’s not nearly as attention-grabbing as Huelskamp’s offering. According to Bloomberg Politics, Marshall attacks Obamacare and shows a picture of the congressman, with the narrator saying that “career politicians can’t fix this mess.”
Tuesday, Jun 21, 2016 · 7:51:23 PM +00:00 · Jeff Singer
Marshall is out with a response commercial, and it’s one of those negative “look at how awful my opponent’s negative ad is!” ads. The narrator calls Huelskamp’s “ugly smears” “the desperate, last gasps of a career politician,” and says that newspapers are accusing the congressman of “spreading misinformation.” The narrator goes on to say that Huelskamp is running “[t]he dirtiest campaign Kansas has ever seen!”, as several newspaper headlines criticizing Huelskamp fly by. However, while the narrator doesn’t actually outright say that these newspapers are condemning Huelskamp’s recent spot, the audience is clearly meant to think that they are. However, all these editorials are old and have nothing to do with the 911 ad.
For instance, the text of the Wichita Eagle that briefly shows up on screen says that Huelskamp “deserves criticism for the content of two glossy mailers recently dropped on his constituents at $64,000 expense to taxpayers.” The spot goes on to feature a headline from The Garden City Telegram titled, “Huelskamp Deliberately Misleads,” but the actual 2015 article is about his attacks on Obamacare, while the text of another article that appears on screen briefly talks about endorsements the congressman may not have actually received. While none of these editorials make Huelskamp sound great, it’s not like the local media is up in arms about his recent commercial. The second half of Marshall’s spot just talks up his own medical career. At no point is the 2008 incident addressed, although there really isn’t anything Marshall can say about it that doesn’t make him look bad.