How to Promote Your Own Campaign While Bashing Your Opponent



           A candidates’ ability to communicate with their targeted supporters is a very important aspect of a congressional election. Candidates must be able to convey a message to potential voters regarding their persona and policy stances, while at the same time finding effective ways to bring down their opponent’s campaign. So far in the race for Arizona’s 1^st District seat, Republican challenger Paul Gosar has been very successful at maintaining a clear, consistent message regarding his policy. In terms of negative campaigning, both Gosar and incumbent Ann Kirkpatrick have been going back and forth at each other trying to portray the other negatively.



Glenn Beck would certainly approve of Gosar's campaign message



            In Paul Hernnson’s book Congressional Elections, he points out that a well run campaign puts forward the same coherent message at all times. Gosar has done a tremendous job of appealing to conservative voters with his unfailing right-wing rhetoric. Gosar portrays himself as a small-business owner with a traditional conservative agenda. Gosar favors private health care, low government spending, protecting gun rights, and permanently reinstating the Bush tax cuts. Kirkpatrick on the other hand has struggled with the message she wants to send to voters. As a Democrat trying to appeal to a relatively conservative district, Kirkpatrick has stated her disapproval with Obama. Furthermore, according to an article from October 5th in the Arizona Republic, Kirkpatrick has voted with her party 86% of the time, which is a very low percentage.

 



Kirkpatrick has been turning on her fellow Democrats lately



            While Gosar has succeeded at promoting his own campaign, he is less effective when it comes to bashing Kirkpatrick. Gosar has tried to portray Kirkpatrick as a loyal, liberal ally of President Obama, and also points out her vote for the stimulus bill, and the health care bill. That being said, Kirkpatrick really is not that liberal, as proved by her relative lack of support for party policies. Kirkpatrick has tried to frame Gosar as a millionaire who has been late on his taxes, which quite frankly is a ridiculous tactic. Kirkpatrick needs to focus on more relevant issues if she wants to be successful in this campaign.