Negative advertising was fuel for a ferocious governor’s race
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Nov. 16) — Floridians are at an impasse in their decision for governor between Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis and Democratic Mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum.
And the divisiveness of both their votes and opinions of the two candidates reflected in the campaign advertising they consumed.
After what looked like a DeSantis win on election night, Gillum is now back in consideration after his competitor’s lead in the polls fell under half a percentage point, requiring a state-mandated machine recount.
In a race this close, tensions were bound to be high — as was the advertising behind it.
There were 18,214 ads related to the Florida gubernatorial race between Gillum and DeSantis from Oct. 16 to Oct. 25, according to the Sun Sentinel. The ads cost roughly $12.7 million.
Judging by both the quantity of ads and the money spent on them, the Sentinel reported, it was the most expensive governor’s race in the nation.
That means Florida voters have seen a lot of DeSantis and Gillum on their television screens and in their mailboxes recently. But it hasn’t always been in a positive light.
Before walking through the glass double doors of his Fort Lauderdale polling place this past Tuesday, Vladimir Raygorodsky, a retired software engineer, said that was exactly the case.
“Quite a bit, but I’m not paying too much attention to it,” Raygorodsky, 66, said of the amount of political advertising he’s consumed during the 2018 midterms. “From what I’ve seen, they seem to be pretty aggressive.”
Aggressive might have been an understatement.
One ad from the Republican Governor’s Association portrayed Gillum in outer space, suggesting that his views are so radical that he is from another planet. The planet, the voice in the ad says, is named “Planet Andrew.” Over the 30-second spot, Gillum is described as a “disaster” on economic issues and “dangerous” on immigration.
With the race being as tight at is, it calls to question whether this practice of negative advertising is in the best interest of the state and its citizens. There was and is a chance — albeit a small one — that Gillum becomes the next Governor of Florida.
If nearly half of Floridians support DeSantis, and in turn, believe the ad, civil public discourse between his supporters and Gillum’s could be at risk.
In response, Democratic super PACs paid for plenty of anti-DeSantis ads of their own. Daniel Wolf , 69, said he believes this back and forth, combative nature between candidates is the only way some of their campaigns can survive.
“Negative campaigning and negative advertisements work because they catch people’s attention,” said Wolf, a political scientist and lawyer. “You can ache all day long for a return to positive campaigning, but if somebody does something ugly and breaks the gentleman’s agreement, then you have to respond in kind. And you may not go as low as the other guy, but you have to kick back and strike back.”
Wolf, who traveled from San Diego to Broward County to conduct an election audit, argued that negative advertising might be more harmful than useful in a midterm election like the one between Gillum and DeSantis.
When a race is down to one Republican and one Democrat, ads tend to matter less because most voters are solidified in their party affiliations, according to Wolf. He said it’s the primary races where ads are most meaningful.
“If you’re a Democrat and there are two Democrats running, and you don’t know either of them, or you know them vaguely, then you’re not feeling partisan. Then you’ll pay attention to the advertising,” Wolf said. “If you’re already kind of more or less settled on a party, then something attacking your candidate or attacking the other side is probably not going to have that much influence.”
But regardless of its effectiveness or not, negative advertising remains prevalent. And that concerns 41-year-old state Rep. Evan Jenne, who represents Florida’s District 99.
Jenne described today’s political culture as “tribal,” and said that negative advertising is a big reason why.
“It’s getting harder and harder to convince someone in a separate party to come vote for the other major party,” Jenne said. “Each side is starting to have this victim complex, like everybody is coming after them. And that’s only going to solidify things further. It’s more finger-pointing than it is looking for solutions. And that’s scary.”
“I’ve been in [politics] for 10 of the last 12 years and it’s never been as bad before.”
Raygorodsky is neither in politics like Jenne, nor in political science like Wolf. He is, however, on the front lines of this “tribal” political experience.
He said he remains independent of its hysteria by trying to “think with his own head.” If other voters followed suit, could political advertising trend in a positive direction again?
“I think once people get tired of it and it starts hurting campaigns that run constant negative attack ads, I think then you’ll start to see people back away,” Jenne said. “Right now, it works. The American public has an appetite for some character bashing.”
Wolf, on the other hand, is a little less optimistic for a change anytime soon.
“We’ll see campaigns that are run in gentlemanly ways,” he said, “when we see pigs fly.”
