Ads that tie Republicans to Wall Street are boosting early voting returns for some Democrats in Election 2010.Every political campaign has its bogeymen.
This cycle has had more than a few – think China,
demon sheep, and even
witchcraft. But as election day 2010 comes into view, it turns out the biggest bad guy of all is Wall Street. Of the million or so ad airings in House and Senate races, roughly 15 percent have focused on the high-flying investment sector of lower Manhattan. That's the largest of any single topic, according to the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks election ads.
As we get closer to Nov. 2, the trend is accelerating, says project co-director Michael Franz. As the actual vote approaches, he says, Democrats are trying to gain leverage with voters. “It makes sense that they would try to paint Republicans as being in cahoots with the big banks that brought on all the financial trouble so they can send the populist message they want voters to hear,” says Franz, who is an associate professor of government at Bowdoin College.
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Early voting returns suggest that there may be a correlation between this stepped-up attack on Wall Street and Democratic fortunes at the ballot box, says Iowa State University political scientist Steffen Schmidt. According to a new Associated Press analysis of more than three million early ballots, Democrats have “an edge” in some states and counties. Early votes for Democrats outnumber those for Republicans so far in Iowa, Maryland, North Carolina, Louisiana and Nevada.
This surprising strength suggests that as the Democrats clarify their message, this anti-Wall Street trend could continue to help them. “It may make the massacre of Democrats that is being predicted less devastating than expected,” says Mr. Schmidt. At his blog at InsiderIowa.com, he highlights what he calls an odd Democratic reluctance to hammer this point home earlier. Why, he wonders, did Democrats and groups such as Moveon.org "miss the opportunity to point out it wasn’t Obama and the Democrats that created the problem that resided with Wall Street?”
more Bogeyman = It worked.