It will soon be time to turn off your TV sets if the
rhetoric or image of Republican Senate candidate George Allen[1]
makes you queasy. According to Alexander
Burns, Allen’s Senate campaign recently announced that it is setting aside
millions for air time during the fall to bludgeon Virginians with his negative
campaign message.[2]
When the spending spree has lifted, Allen may have reserved
a little more than $3 million in air time between Labor Day and the U.S. Senate
election in November. In addition, Allen is also stowing away a couple hundred
thousand dollars in air time for ads over the summer.
What this means for you, me, and the average television
viewer in Virginia is a deluge of political commercials preaching the gospel of
George Allen. Of course, the Allen campaign’s own commercials will be in
addition to those already infiltrating the airwaves via so-called Super PAC
groups.[3]
George Allen’s strategy, and that of his supporter Super
PACs, seems to consist of flooding the TV screens of
Virginians with negative messages until they become so pervasive and saturated
in our minds that even the biggest liberals come out as reborn Allen
supporters.
Whether or not Allen’s strategy works, Virginia has
undoubtedly entered a new, more in-your-face version of politics that has
hardly been equaled by any other time in the past.[4]
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Allen_(politician)
[2] http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/06/george-allen-buys-fall-tv-time-127516.html
[3] http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2012/jun/14/kaine-targeted-american-crossroads-super-pac-ad-ar-1989066/
[4] http://news.yahoo.com/super-pac-era-handshakes-even-matter-073508720.html
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