As far as broadcast-news smackdowns go, this is one of the best we've seen.
As lipris notes, the last thing you ever want to see on local TV is a segment about you that begins, "And FINALLY, with his poll numbers tanking..."
As a friend of mine might say, WTEN just drank his face.
The election is exactly two weeks away, on March 31st, 2009, so it is a very bad time to have your poll numbers "tanking", as it were.
And Tedisco's allies, unfortunately, are not helping him: hard-right PACs with , along with the NRCC and Republican National committee (led by the beleaguered Michael Steele) have put hundreds of thousands of dollars into this race, only to find that their ads are backfiring.
The National Republican Trust PAC, a well-heeled Washington, D.C.-based political group, has spent $190,000 to put that ad on the air. But according to the non-partisan Siena Research Institute, for whom Greenberg is a spokesman, negative ads against Murphy are not paying dividends. According to the Siena Poll released on March 12, Murphy has closed a double-digit gap and is now just four points behind Republican candidate Jim Tedisco. Only 12 percent of voters said the ads they saw for Tedisco made them more likely to support the Republican, to 28 percent who said they became less likely to support him.
Voters may be blaming Tedisco for a campaign he isn’t running. "It is really hard for voters," said Greenberg, "outside of guys like me who pay attention to this stuff, to discern between an ad for Murphy or an ad by the national Democrats, an ad by Tedisco or an ad by someone who supports Tedisco."
Republicans are looking for signs of hope from the race in NY-20, a sprawling, rural district that covers much of the Hudson Valley. The election is not just a chance to add to the diminished Republican ranks in the House, but also an opportunity to break through the media clutter and start talking about a political comeback. Last month, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele called the race a "battle royale" that could give the party a crucial win. But last week, as polls showed the race tightening, Tedisco announced that he was "taking over" his campaign and ditching negative ads. It was seen as a rejection of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s strategy of attacks on Murphy’s business record.
They're still running these negative ads, and alienating the local press in the process.
With just two weeks until election day, Democrat Scott Murphy has a real chance at winning this election, and dealing a major blow to an already reeling GOP (particularly new captain Michael Steele).
On the web:
Scott Murphy for Congress
Albany Project ActBlue Page