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They said WHAT?

Looking back at the bad, the horrible and the pleasant in local campaigns

Thu, Nov 6, 2008 (midnight)

If Dina Titus and Jon Porter never run against each other again it will be a pleasant hereafter. While we have to nod to the creativity of the Porter/GOP attack ads (“Doctor, is it diverticulitis? No, Dina Titus! Taxes up the ying-yang!”), we must also hand the Porter crew the award for lowest of the low attack ads. A lot of bullshit delivered with amazingly little class.

Next on the list of venom-spewing, incomplete-picture, lie-mired races was between Steve Sisolak and Brian Scroggins for County Commission District A. By the end of this race, if you’re basing your vote on TV ads, you knew something vaguely about how you should finish the work of the FBI by stopping Sisolak, who is a lying telemarketer of some sort. Of course, if you read Sisolak’s mailers, you got a really helpful bit of political information: “Liar, liar pants on fire!” said his ad with a clown on it. “Brian Scroggins even lied about his honesty.” Wha?

Next on the list of nasty and unhelpful ads are mailers in the Joe Heck vs. Shirley Breeden race for a state senate seat. “Joe Heck. In it for himself. To Heck with us.” Very little about Breeden in this endless series of mailers that seemed all entirely based on using her opponent’s name as pun. “Say heck no to more Joe Heck.”

But there was one TV ad that caused us to pause and think unusually smiley thoughts about a politician. Las Vegas City Councilman Larry Brown, in his bid for County Commission, had the mayor and a soccer dad and other colleagues briefly endorse his work and character, and then he squared up to the camera and said, “I respectfully ask for your vote.” Not a single negative word, not a scare tactic in sight, just a plain, old-fashioned asking for your vote. A brief breath of fresh air in this noxious campaign season.

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