Those Awful Political Ads: Thoughts on Election Day in California

By Clint Reilly

Even though I actively support many candidates financially and through volunteering, just turning on a TV during election season is difficult for me. Opening my mailbox is painful. I feel smothered by the tidal wave of television commercials and brochures that wash through my house every election cycle.

I was a political consultant for more than two decades before exiting the profession in 1996. I was responsible for helping to create dozens of campaigns and many new techniques for managing them. I certainly produced my share of marginal political ads.

But frankly, I’m shocked by the state of political advertising today. It’s appalling.

Nevertheless, mediocre candidates win and atrocious political ads work for two disturbing reasons: because one side has more money, and because there isn’t enough objective information coming from neutral sources like newspapers to communicate the truth.

The problems go hand-in-hand. Daily newspapers are powerless to provide ample objective information against the onslaught of paid propaganda manufactured by political consultants and financed by special interests. The “one-story wrap-up” coverage of legislative or local races just can’t compete with a dozen mailers and thousands of rating points in television spots.

Voters desperately need newspapers to provide objective coverage of local government and state legislative races. But, as newspapers reduce reporters and reporting, the information available to voters on local and regional issues dwindles. Cutbacks have left many news beats literally uncovered.

Also, as more voters move from newspapers to the Web for news, one statistic is ominous. According to research conducted by the Pew Institute, less than 10 percent of Americans receive their local news on the Internet.

It seems that Web readers are keeping abreast of national and international issues but are woefully ignorant on local issues.

Meanwhile, the two principal forms of political advertising are dragging down the democratic process.

First, direct political mailings have become so predictable in design and content that the form itself – even before a brochure is read – evokes a negative reaction from voters. My theory is that the sight of a brochure in the mailbox now triggers highly negative feelings about politics from voters, even though they may read and even decide based on information in the brochure.

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