Posts
It seems rural Iowa can't escape the negative attack ads either. Last week in Iowa House District 44, located in Hardin County and basically all of Marshall County except for Marshalltown, the area's largest local paper, the Marshalltown Times Republican, ran a lead article about Republican incumbant Polly Granzow. The article is entitled, "Granzow Vows to Keep Campaign Clean." Here is part of the article...
Saying she would never endorse negative campaigning, Rep. Polly Granzow, R-Eldora, was recently in Marshall County to make her case for another term in the Iowa House.That seemed to be a strong statement by Granzow until people in the district checked their mailboxes that afternoon and found a mailing from the Iowa Republican Party attacking Granzow's opponent, Tim Hoy. The flyer graded Hoy with F's and cited information from when Hoy was the mayor of Eldora.
Questions have arisen in recent weeks concerning speculation by some Democratic lawmakers that the GOP will be targeting certain districts with negative ads. One of those targeted areas mentioned was House District 44, where Democrat Tim Hoy, former Eldora mayor and local businessman, is challenging Granzow.
“I have never done negative campaigning and I do not intend to,” Granzow said. “I would turn that around and ask if they are planning on doing attack ads against me.”
Hoy is a strong candidate, who is popular in his district. He is a business owner, former mayor of the 2nd largest town in the district, and knows the issues that rural Iowans care about. He is for the family farmer, renewable energy, and is a strong supporter of education. You can read about an event that I attended with Hoy here.
It is more than a little ironic that both the newspaper article and the attack mailings came out on the same day. Chalk this down as another example of Republican hypocrisy. Granzow may vow to run a clean campaign, but it seems she doesn't mind having other people do her dirty work. It is clear that Granzow and the Iowa Republican Party are scared they will lose this seat.
3 comments:
Seems to me the larger issue is what sort of accountablity state and national party machines have when commenting on behalf of particular candidates. Free speech means that people are free to endorse or attack candidates without needing permission.
Not that talking out of both sides of ones mouth is at all new in politics, but isn't it at least conceivable that Ms. Graznow was unaware that the mailings were being sent? Given the current state of politics why would either party necessarily care what a particular candidate wants when deciding what literature to send out? There is already at least 1 example of a Republican candidate being blindsided by his own party and disavowing his party affiliation as a result. The same thing could have easily happened here. Is their any evidence that the Graznow campaign authorized the mailing in question?
If Granzow really vowed to run a clean campaign, she would have went back to the TR and wrote a letter to the editor apologizing for the mailings. A Republican candidate in Southern Iowa switched his party and is now running as an independent after attack mailings were put out against his opponent.
Polly Granzow has tried to avoid negative campaigning. However, when broad, unexplained statments of her competition are endorsed by one of the largest papers in the district as a means of support, it might be understood why she has to put up her defenses and fight fire with fire. It was her hope not to do so. Look up Tim Hoys negative comments about Granzow's legislative decisions. Than look up the legislation and decide for yourself. If so, you may be able to make a few assumptions about Mr. Hoy's integrity.
Post a Comment