Perry Goes Negative on White
The Texas gubernatorial race is heating up, as Gov. Rick Perry (R) has unleashed his first wave of negative TV ads against the Democratic nominee, former Houston Mayor Bill White (D).
Perry has gone up with three new ads. Two of the commercials attack White's record as mayor of Houston and seek tie him to Pres. Obama. "Obama and White, Washington style spending. Wrong for Texas," says a narrator in one of the ads.
Another spot accuses White of profiting off of Hurricane Rita, a charge White rejects and an issue the 2 sides have sparred over.
"Rick Perry and his handlers are resorting to false, negative attacks because they're afraid this is the end of his 25 year career in politics," said White spokesperson Katy Bacon, in response to the ads.
White has tried distance himself from Obama on certain issues and was notably absent from a Democratic fundraiser in Texas headlined by Obama, signaling that White is keenly aware of the dangers of being linked to the president in the GOP-leaning state.
Perry was off the air for months following his victory in the GOP primary in March and recently went up with his first commercial of the general election, which was a positive spot. For his own part, White was on TV over the summer with positive, biographical spots but recently aired a commercial that takes Perry to task on border security. Meanwhile, Back To Basics PAC, a Democratic group, has also been a significant presence on the airwaves, blasting Perry in 6 figure TV ad buys of their own.
Perry has shown a tendency to be aggressive on TV, so the ads do not come as a huge surprise. During the primary, even as he sported a double digit lead in the polls against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) in the closing weeks of the race, Perry continued his ad assault, airing spots that sought to cast Hutchison as beholden to DC interests. The move proved to be effective for the incumbent, who won the primary by a wide margin.
But Perry has his hands full with White in a race that recent polling indicates is close (though Perry has maintained his position as front-runner), so the move to go negative is also an indication of the threat White presents. Also worth noting: with the likelihood that there will not be a single Perry-White deabte this fall, TV ads could prove to be even more influential in the race.