Nevada’s politicos were buzzing the day after this year’s primary. What some were at first calling an upset election has really turned out to be no more than the inevitable outcome, given our current political environment. While there were many factors at work in this election, it’s clear that the hype generated by some well-crafted and extremely well-funded campaigns had an impact on the results.
How else to explain Sen. Ann O’Connell’s primary election loss to challenger Joe Heck? Super-effective spin backed by tons of cash had much to do with Heck’s success in painting the notoriously anti-tax O’Connell as a tax-happy liberal. As one northern county official put it to me on primary night: “‘No’ is always the first word you hear when you ask Ann O’Connell for something; if it’s a tax, then the answer is ‘No, No, No.’”
Combine great spin with low voter turnout and a substantial number of new voters who don’t have a historical knowledge of Nevada’s political players, and you have the recipe for an upset winner like Heck.
Unfortunately, the spin blitz the voters have been hit with since early this year is only going to intensify as Nov. 2 gets closer. With every day that passes, it is going to become more difficult for voters to sort the facts from the fiction.
While politicians have been perfecting the art of spin for years, the craft has risen to a new level in an age of instant information. Campaign consultants have finally figured out what corporate America has known for a long time: bombard the public with a carefully crafted message and it’s bound to stick. Spinners have gotten quite good at crafting phrases and sound bites that create false impressions or lead voters to totally erroneous conclusions.
The presidential campaigns of 2004 have shown us political spin like we’ve never seen before. The “He said – he said” that used to play out on newspaper pages and TV airwaves over the course of days, now turns into a tennis match within hours. One candidate makes a statement on the stump in Pennsylvania. An hour or so later, the opposing campaign will be responding on CNN or Fox News. A couple of hours later, the party faithful will get an e-mail alert urging their quick action on the local level. The back-and-forth will play out on the nightly news, and the late-night comics might even have it in their opening monologues. All in one day.
And that doesn’t even count the paid political advertising. The balloons had barely touched the party convention floors before the opposition was using each candidate’s words against him in a commercial. And the special interest organizations have only added to the tidal wave of information the voters are left to sort through.
What to do? There are lots of solutions. Unfortunately, none are all that likely, at least not in time for this election. First, the media need to invest more resources in finding the truth. Fact-checking should be more important than scooping a competitor. Readers and viewers remember who had the best coverage of a particular issue, not who broke the story first.
Second, campaigns should hold themselves to a higher ethical standard when it comes to advertising. After all, the future of the county or state or country is on the line here…not which brand of dishwasher soap leaves fewer spots. In the time it can take the media to sort through the spin, the half-truth or misleading comment is well imprinted in the public’s consciousness. The correction or clarification that comes later is buried in the bottom corner of page 5, when the first accusation ran on page 1.
Finally, the voters need to get with it. Not only do more of them need to show up at the polls, but they need to show up armed with good information. And getting good information these days requires some work. While it takes time to go beyond the surface of a story or an issue, it has to be done. There is simply too much at stake.
Spin may be as old as politics, but never has it been more dangerous to our democratic process. It’s easy to use the constant barrage as an excuse not to vote. Actually, it’s the reason we all need to become more involved.