Texas Republican campaign consultant Ed Emmett says Republicans need to run less-negative campaigns. Emmett, a former Texas House member, wrote an "open letter" to state GOP leaders Nov. 20, and also posted it online.
Here's part of it:
I was appalled by the negative, “cookie cutter” approach taken by many candidates' consultants. We Republicans have the right message, but too many of our candidates came off as mean spirited, pit bull politicians. In my neighborhood, I heard countless voters say they usually voted Republican but were turned off by our incumbent Republican representative viciously attacking her Democrat challenger. Our incumbent Republican lost by 5,000 votes.
Meanwhile, one race I was involved with, Tim Kleinschmidt for State Representative, used a tailored message and a campaign based upon old-fashioned tactics. Tim came within 417 votes of defeating a five-term Democrat who had consistently won by more than 5,000 votes. The Kleinschmidt campaign should be our model, instead of those campaigns which feature personal attacks, grainy black and white photos of the opponent, and generic ads that have been used elsewhere.
The only point to this letter is to urge Republican leaders to help refocus our candidates (and their consultants) on the positive conservative message. Remember the sunny optimism of Ronald Reagan.
Austin American-Statesman political columnist W. Gardner Selby asked other Texas GOP campaign consultants for their reaction. It was mixed, with some agreeing with Emmett that modern campaigns have become too cookie-cutter, but others blaming the national anti-GOP mood, rather than campaign styles, for the GOP's lackluster results in Texas.
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