WestVirginiaRebel Posted October 10, 2018 Share Posted October 10, 2018 Politico Once in Florida, it had been considered taboo to run negative campaign attack ads as a hurricane batters the state. But no more. As Hurricane Michael bore down Wednesday on the Panhandle with Category 4 winds, the Republican Party of Florida broke with that tradition and continued to air two ads bashing Ron DeSantis’ Democratic rival in the race for governor, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, over his city’s response to a hurricane in 2016. And in the U.S. Senate race, the Democratic super PAC backing Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla) began running a negative commercial in strike-zone markets calling his opponent Gov. Rick Scott a dishonest “shady millionaire who doesn’t look out for you.” Also in those markets, a Republican super PAC supporting Scott is attacking Nelson in ad for being “an empty suit.” There is a major difference between the two negative ads: The Senate campaigns have no say over the super PAC ads, can’t coordinate with the group under federal law, and Nelson’s campaign said no one should be posting negative ads in the counties affected by Michael. DeSantis’ campaign, however, is governed by state law and worked side-by-side with the state GOP with its attack ad. “We can’t recall a time where candidates for statewide office have not pulled down negative ads during hurricane season,” Gillum said on MSNBC as the storm bore down. “You’ve got a whole region of our state, where folks are fleeing for their lives, anticipating what is a life-threatening event impacting this state. I again would encourage my opponent to just subside with the politics. We’ll have plenty enough room — beyond this storm — to compete between our ideas. What we need now is for the state to come together to reduce our partisanship and to focus on this important storm impacting our state.” DeSantis’ campaign referred questions about the ad to the state Republican Party, which later said it would pull the ads down. ________ Now Democrats want partisanship, in the eye of their own storm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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