Johnny Angel and I have been talking about this trend for months, and now there’s evidence to support our conclusion: Meg Whitman’s massive blitz of campaign ads is doing her more harm than good.
From Calitics:
Jerry Brown’s campaign manager, Steve Glazer, took to the campaign’s blog today to offer his thoughts on the state of the race. In that post, Glazer offered this fascinating nugget of information:
A survey we completed three days ago found most people who have seen a Whitman ad don’t believe her claims are true. When we asked whether these ads have improved or worsened their opinions of the candidates for Governor, the results were as follows:
Attorney General Jerry Brown: 6% improved; 4% worsened; 58% unchanged
Meg Whitman: 8% improved; 27% worsened; 31% unchanged
In more than 30 years of working on campaigns, I have never seen a candidate’s ads have such a negative effect on that same candidate.
Amazing, but it makes sense. The ads are becoming annoying — you can’t turn on the radio or TV in California without being assaulted by Meg, Meg, Meg — and her mesage is so flat and lacking in credibility that the voters can apparently see through it.
There’s an interesting possibility that Whitman will lose and Prop. 23 will lose, and combined with PG&E losing on Prop. 16 this spring, the notion that money alone can buy a California election may be changing. A little.