BILBRAY FILES: THINGS THAT GO BUMP
Sometimes there are geographical bumps in the road...but
sometimes it’s a political corpse.
In Nevada’s 3rd congressional district on
Thursday the bump Democrats felt was congressional candidate Erin Bilbray-Kohn being thrown under
the bus by Sen. Harry Reid.
In an interview with the Las
Vegas Sun, the Senate Majority Leader “had the least flattering comments
for the campaign of Erin Bilbray, who is challenging Republican Rep. Joe Heck in the 3rd Congressional
District, which includes Henderson and Boulder City.”
“Bilbray should win, but her campaign has been hit and
miss,” Reid said. “It hasn’t been a great campaign.”
A master of understatement, to be sure!
Indeed, just three weeks ago the Sun reported that “Some national-level operatives in (Bilbray-Kohn’s)
party are quietly expressing frustration about her campaign,” citing the
candidate’s lousy fundraising numbers and ineffective campaign organization.
Shortly thereafter, Bilbray-Kohn dumped her second campaign
manager this year. Nevertheless, she appeared on a morning television program
this week claiming her race is just like Reid’s race in 2010 and predicted
victory in November.
Here’s the problem with that…
Reid’s Republican opponent was Sharron Angle – who ran about as bad a campaign in the general
election as you possibly could. And Reid’s
political machine was as well-oiled as any in America – including that of the
president.
On the other hand, Bilbray-Kohn’s opponent has three titles
- doctor, colonel and congressman.
Indeed, Joe Heck is an Army surgeon with two tours in Iraq under his
belt, as well as being an emergency room medic who has honorably served with
distinction in the Nevada Legislature for one term and United States House of Representatives
for two terms.
Bilbray-Kohn has zero military or legislative experience. And her medical experience consists of supporting ObamaCare.
Sorry, but Joe Heck is no Sharron Angle…and Erin
Bilbray-Kohn is no Harry Reid.
Stick a fork in her; she’s done.
LAXALT STILL BLEEDING FROM POTENTIALLY MORTAL POLITICAL
WOUND
On Wednesday afternoon, Jon
Ralston - Nevada’s #2 liberal blogger and unofficial communications
director for the Nevada Democrat Party - dropped a stink bomb on Republican
attorney general candidate Adam Laxalt
by publishing brutally negative internal review notations relating to a
two-year-old confidential performance evaluation by Laxalt’s former law firm.
The material in the notes is an opposition researcher’s
dream. The negative radio and television
ads, not to mention voter contact mailers, write themselves.
The memo absolutely has the potential to do to Laxalt’s
campaign what the “chickens for checkups” brouhaha did to Sue Lowden’s U.S. senate campaign in 2010 if Laxalt’s team doesn’t
quickly stop the hemorrhaging.
Unfortunately, the campaign’s immediate response was pretty
much limited to questioning the authenticity of the document and suggesting
that it was unlawfully obtained. But as Joe Gaylord - my “professor” some 20
years ago at the Campaign Management College in Washington, DC – is wont to
say, “The only law not broken in a political campaign is Murphy’s Law.”
Some observations as the sun rose here at Campland on the
Bay in San Diego…
1.) It was
hilariously comical to watch Ralston joyously reveling in a passage in the
review that criticized Laxalt’s writing skills.
If it’s “‘typing’ skills that are the problem,” wrote
reviewing attorney Joice Bass, “there
is Spell Check for that. But, time and
again, he (Laxalt) has chosen not to use this technological function.”
What’s funny about this is the fact that Ralston himself is
the “King of Typos” who has yet to master the technological function of
spell-check for his own blog.
Although I stopped posting regularly some time ago because
it was so time-consuming to keep up with all of Ralston’s boo-boos, you can
still see what I mean by going to www.RalstonRetorts.com.
2.) An official statement
from Laxalt’s former law firm on Thursday acknowledges a serious “security
breach” (lawsuit coming to a theater near you?) in having these “confidential
documents” released to the public, and asserts that the opinions expressed in
those two-year-old internal reviews “do not represent the current view of Lewis
Roca Rothgerber LLP about Adam.”
Fine and dandy. But,
um, that won’t stop the political bleeding.
The firm’s “current view” is irrelevant.
The damage is done. Anything less
than identifying the leaker and quickly firing them in a very public manner
will suffice. And even that might not be
enough.
3.) The Laxalt
campaign’s response to the Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP statement was not well
thought out and actually buttressed one of the biggest criticisms of Laxalt in
the two-year-old review; that Laxalt thought far more highly of his own
abilities than those who reviewed him.
Laxalt’s prepared response devoted five full paragraphs to
boasting about Laxalt’s experience, performance and accomplishments.
Strategically, not a smart move…as any good direct response
marketer will tell you. Instead, Laxalt
should have had OTHER PEOPLE testify to his experience, performance and
accomplishments.
Every candidate for public office claims to be the greatest
thing since sliced bread. But because so
many politicians lie through their teeth almost every time they open their
mouths (hello, Michael Roberson!),
the public no longer takes at face value anything that any politician says,
especially about themselves.
Third-party testimonials are much more powerful…and
believable.
4.) Forget where’s
Waldo; where’s Sandoval?
Last March, after Laxalt filed to run for attorney general,
his fellow Republican and top-of-the-ticket candidate, Gov. Brian Sandoval, said, “I’m honored to
endorse Adam Laxalt’s campaign for Attorney General. I look forward to working with him as
Nevada’s next Attorney General.”
That was then. This
is now.
Now, unless I missed a memo somewhere, Sandoval has yet to
issue a statement reaffirming his unqualified support for his embattled GOP
attorney general candidate in response to the performance review
kerfuffle. Instead Sandoval appears to
have run from Laxalt like a scalded dog and may well be holed up in Dick Cheney’s secret, undisclosed
bunker.
When the going gets tough, Sandoval gets going.
With “friends” like that in the foxhole with you…
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Economic downturns in US were called ‘panics’ because they
were short. Then gov ‘helped’ and they became ‘depressions’ or ‘recessions.’"
– Grover
Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform
No comments:
Post a Comment