Republican Microtargeting -- and Race Baiting in California

Here’s an excerpt from a column that appeared on the San Diego Union-Tribune’s website, "The Race Race", about some of Assemblymember Shirley Horton’s campaign mailings. It was penned by Carl Luna, a professor of Political Science at San Diego Mesa College and a lecturer on politics and international political economy at the University of San Diego.

“Her (Horton’s) campaign has been blitzing targeted mailboxes with three different mailers in the past week. And each one features not photos of the very photogenic Horton but photos of her opponent, Maxine Sherard on each panel of the mailer. One brochure features no less than six photos of her opponent. Curious that.

Horton, of course, uses the brochures to paint Sherard as an ultra-liberal while showing herself to be a political independent (who just happens to vote with the Republican caucus the large majority of the time but, hey, everyone is free to spin their resume, aren’t they?) But the focus on pictures of Sherard -- multiple pictures leaping off each panel of the mailer--kind of puts things into a specific perspective.

A black and white perspective.

Is Horton trying to remind at least portions of her constituency that the differences between herself and her opponent are black and white too?”

Is this the kind of “microtargeting” that is healthy for political debate in California? I think not.

Assemblymember Horton should be ashamed of herself for sending her campaign mail pieces featuring photos of her African-American opponent, Dr. Maxine Sherard, to some neighborhoods while not sending it to others.

Candidates should be competing on ideas, not what color they are or where they or their parents are from. Shirley Horton, who pretends to be a Democrat at election time, already had been engaging in the far right’s anti-immigrant hate campaign – complete with mail pieces to white voters on immigration and driver’s license for undocumented workers -- prior to her race-baiting mail literature. Now she is racheting it up further by making a “black and white” contrast to certain voters.

California, and particularly San Diego, is known for its tolerance and its spirit of community. Our diversity is our strength. I hope that Dr. Sherard and Democrats can show that racially divisive messaging will backfire, just as Harold Ford as done in Tennessee.

Mateo R. Camarillo also is Vice Chairman San Diego County Mexican American Political Association.