Bernie Sanders has said that he has never run a negative ad and didn’t intend to during this campaign. However, he is apparently trailing in Iowa by a few points (Polling Average) and has apparently decided that winning there is more important than keeping the promise he made.
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/28/bernie-sanders-releases-tough-ad-on-wall-street-speaking-fees/?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0
DES MOINES — Speaking with reporters on Thursday morning, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was asked if he would satisfy some of his frustrated supporters by making a more direct contrast with Hillary Clinton in the final days before the Iowa caucuses.
“I do not intend to run a negative political ad,” Mr. Sanders said at a breakfast hosted by Bloomberg Politics.
Did that mean he would run a stronger contrast ad, Mr. Sanders was asked.
“Well, uhhh, contrast ad. Um, I have, by the way, let me just say this, uh, we have run some really beautiful ads, positive ads,” Mr. Sanders said, before then explaining his history of benefiting from positive ads.
He answered a series of other questions about his foreign policy views and how the political establishment was stacked against him, before being asked again whether he planned to run more “contrast ads” in Iowa.
“Do I plan on running more contrast ads?” he said. “I don’t think we do, but that’s something we are still talking about.”
The conversation is apparently over. On Thursday morning, the Sanders campaign released an ad with the less-than-beatific title “The Problem,” which criticized the Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs and other banks for corrupting politics with “millions in campaign contributions and speaking fees.”
Mr. Sanders has done much to lay the groundwork to associate Mrs. Clinton with Wall Street, highlighting her acceptance of speaking fees from Goldman Sachs and it’s role in the mortgage crisis. And on the stump and interviews now, Mr. Sanders has added a new line noting that Hillary Clinton went to Philadelphia last night for a fund-raiser at an investment bank.