A former campaign official who worked on the 1980 McGovern-Abdnor race offers a comment in response to a Kevin Woster post on Rapid City Journal's Mt. Blogmore:
Kevin, you raise some interesting points that deserve a little historical perspective. What Dick Wadhams did in the last campaign is not particularly new in South Dakota, but he may have just done it better and with more money. On the other hand, what the Daschlites are doing right now is, to the best of my knowledge, unprecedented in SD politics. Whether it is a good thing will, of course, be in the eye of the beholder.
When Jim Abdnor ran against George McGovern in 1980, our staff and consultants did the same thing Wadhams did in 2004. We analyzed years worth of McGovern statements and actions and used them in advertisements. When Tom Daschle ran against Abdnor in ‘86, he had film crews following Abdnor around to public events for at least two years prior to Election Day to seize upon any misstatement that could be used in a TV ad. There is nothing wrong with these tactics. An incumbent’s statements and actions are and should be fair game in a re-election campaign.
But no matter who has won a Senate race in the last three decades, be it Jim Abdnor, Tom Daschle, Larry Pressler or Tim Johnson, none of them were subject to a perpetual attack campaign that began immediately after Election Day. McGovern didn’t do it to us. We didn’t do it to Daschle. Pressler didn’t do it to Johnson.
Having said that, I would be surprised if this sore losers campaign has much of an impact. It’s preaching to a relatively small choir of people like a few on this blog who go all googly-eyed over left-wing websites.
That’s not to say that John Thune’s record shouldn’t be held up to public scrutiny. Of course it should. But, I don’t think that’s really the focus of groups that peddle “F— John Thune” t-shirts and simply condemn everything Senator Thune does without any regard to intellectual honesty.
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