I live in New York State's Hudson Valley, the 18th District after the most recent Gerrymander. Our current Congresscritter is one Sean Patrick Maloney, a Blue Dog if ever there was one.
His opposition this time around is a wealthy, Tea-Party Ophthalmologist named Nan Hayworth, who was our Representative in the 112th Congress, when this area was still in the 19th district.
Now, I am no great fan of Mr. Maloney, who served on the White House Staff early in Bill Clinton's presidency. But while Maloney is certainly no bargain, Dr. Hayworth was far, far worse. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Rita in 2011, her first statement regarding federal aid for the devastated families in her district was "We'll have to see where we can cut the budget to make funding available." Thanks, Doc - real compassionate of you! Her tune changed after coming home to survey the damage, but that comment was never forgotten, and still shows up on our editorial pages now & again.
As bad as she was as a Congresscritter, though, she's even WORSE as a campaigner. She's still running on the Romney campaign's talking points (e.g., Obamacare cut Medicare funding by $700 Billion, Immigration Reform = Amnesty, etc.)
I got a flyer from her campaign in the mail one day last month that I thought was a new low. The theme was "Sean Maloney is full of baloney." After a few letters appeared in the local papers criticizing the tactic of poking fun at the opposing candidate's name (I wrote one as well, but it wasn't published), what do you suppose the Hayward campaign did? Find out below the Kos cloud.
Did they abandon the tactic, and apologize to the voting public for behaving like middle-school bullies and insulting the intelligence of the electorate? HELL NO, they didn't!
They put it on the TV!
Yes, friends, folks in the NYC media market are now being subjected to TV ads featuring a photo of Dr. Hayworth's opponent, with a slice of bologna over his face, and several "plain-folksy" actors speaking various phrases in which Maloney is rhymed with baloney.
Is this the best Ms. Hayworth has to offer? 30 seconds of puerile name-calling, followed by the inevitable "I'm Nan Hayworth, and I approved this message." Really, Nan? You're PROUD to associate yourself with that trash?
I have another observation on this election season in our district, which seems to strike a more hopeful note. Over the past decade or so, I've noted that the local political lawn signs no longer indicated any candidate's party affiliation. Worse, some signs I knew to be for Republican candidates were printed in blue, and some Democrat's campaign signs were red.
All that is changing this year, however. The local democrats have printed all their signs in blue, and they all say DEMOCRAT - a fascinating development in our traditionally Republican-leaning region.
Sean Maloney's signs actually have the phrase "Clinton Democrat for Congress" printed along the bottom. Is he attempting to ride the coat-tails of a Presidential Candidate who hasn't even declared yet? And how will THAT play with the voters?
We'll know, in a couple of weeks.
(Cross-posted from my blog on thomhartmann.com)