Opinion: What Primary Elections Should Teach Us – Buz Blog

Primary elections are for whittling down the number of candidates in each party to one candidate per office. That candidate will run in the general election. We are bombarded with ads prior to every election. It is unfortunate that many political operatives believe, with some evidence, that negative campaign advertisements work. During this primary election season, we have suffered numerous ads attacking one candidate or another within the same political party. This happens in both the Democrat and Republican primaries. It seems that in Arizona, some Republicans, running for both state or national office, went negative in their primary election campaigning and ads.

It’s understood that type A personalities are attracted to politics and are extremely competitive. There are a number reasons, however, not to turn negative. First, if a candidate attacks his or her opponent, it distracts from the real issues facing our state, our nation, and our people.

After seeing all of the attack ads, so many times, an analysis of negative strategy would seem appropriate. On the Republican side, when the primary candidates expressed their opinions on the issues, there was general agreement on what issues needed to be addressed. Whether the office in contention was for governor, US senator, or state senator, the opposing candidates seemed to agree on the issues. They may have had different solutions to those problems, but both sides promised to address the topics.

An impartial observer might have noticed that the negative campaigning started when one candidate started moving ahead in the polls or when one of the candidates won a major endorsement from former President Trump. One can understand a candidate wanting to even the playing field after his or her opponent won such an endorsement, but that impulse should be resisted.

This brings us to a second argument not to go negative. It often makes that candidate look petty and/or desperate. Negative campaigning projects a candidate’s weakness. It also displays to voters that the negative candidate doesn’t have faith in his or her own ideas and policies, so attacks on the opponent look necessary. Most voters really want to know what a candidate can do for constituents, not how bad the opponent is.

The most important reason not to go negative in a primary election is that it gives the other party ammunition to use in the general election. Republican gubernatorial candidates Kari Lake and Karrin Taylor Robson both have similar conservative views. Either one would have been a good Republican candidate in the general election. Since Kari Lake won, however, you can bet that the Democrats will use information against Lake that they found in Robson’s negative ads. Karrin Taylor Robson should try and nip those attacks early by publicly throwing all of her support behind Kari Lake.

The same is true of the Republican senatorial primary and for the same reasons. Both Blake Masters and Jim Lamon expressed views that any Constitutional conservative would agree with and could vote for. Masters won, but his general election campaign could be hurt by information gleaned from some of Lamon’s negative ads. Jim Lamon should publicly encourage all of his supporters to back and vote for Blake Masters. All Republicans should encourage all of their candidates to avoid negative primary campaigns and advertisements. In the general election, the Democrats have done so much to ruin our economy, our safety and our border, that negatives will be writing themselves.