Is Common Sense Virginia’s Attack Campaign Succeeding?

First some background.  Common Sense Virginia is a PAC created solely for the purpose of attacking Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell.   They receive most of their funding from the Democratic Governors Association, not from Virginia residents.  As of May 28, 2009 the Virginia Pilot reports that the Democratic Governors Association has given Common Sense Virginia a total of nearly $3 million in contributions to fund their attack campaign.  Surely more funds are on the way, and as more articles are written about outside special interest groups funding Common Sense Virginia, voters’ impressions of the group will likely trend negative.

In fact, Common Sense Virginia has already received their share of negative press.  In their frenzy to pump loads of money into Common Sense Virginia, the Democratic Governors Association was investigatedby the state board of elections for not complying with state disclosure laws.  The state board of elections decided not to fine the Democratic Governors Association after they updated their previously incomplete report.  However, the negative press surrounding Common Sense Virginia at the start of the campaign has damaged their credibility.  Media attention was focused on Common Sense Virginia’s tactics and out-of-state funding rather than the messages they were trying to communicate to Virginia‘s voters.

The money from the Democratic Governors Association is being used by Common Sense Virginia to produce attack ads that have blanketed Virginia’s major media markets.  The funds also support an online presence that includes, The Real Bob McDonnell website, a Facebookpage, Twitter page and You Tube videos.

The videos Common Sense Virginia created to slam Bob McDonnell did more to shine the media spotlight on their own tactics.  In an article by David McGee of the Bristol Herald Courier titled, “Video Crew Finds Few McDonnell Complaints in Bristol,”  he writes that Yoni Cohen and Elliot Vice from Common Sense Virginia had a hard time finding people that would speak on camera about Mr. McDonnell.  In another articlewritten by Ray Reed of The News & Advance, he corrects some of the misinformation that Cohen and Vice were including in their videos.

Common Sense Virginia‘s use of social networking sites is also having mixed results.  The Facebook page has partially backfired as many of the posts slam the organization and the Democratic party.  Twitter isn’t being used to its fullest potential either.  The posts or “tweets” are entertaining at first, but you quickly become bored with them because they are increasingly repetitive and a rehash of points already covered on their website.

The Democratic Governors Association is understandably concerned about Bob McDonnell and explains their aggressive tactics.  As an April 16, 2009 Rasmussen poll stated:

Of all four gubernatorial candidates, McDonnell has seen the biggest increase in his voter favorables since the last survey. By contrast, all three Democrats have seen bigger increases in their unfavorability ratings than in their favorables. But sizable numbers of Virginia voters still don’t know enough about any of the candidates to express an opinion of them.

This explains why the Democratic Governors Association is aggressively attacking Bob McDonnell.  As the Democratic candidates have been beating themselves up in the primary, Bob McDonnell (who is running unopposed in the Republican primary), has been able to increase his lead.  However, most voters aren’t yet paying attention to the race and their opinions can still be influenced before the general election.

To date, Common Sense Virginia’s attack campaign has produced mixed results.  The local media has dedicated most of its coverage to their questionable tactics and funding by outside interest groups.  Common Sense Virginia’s use of social networking sites has been poorly executed and needs to be retooled for the general election to push out messages that appeal to independent and moderate Republican voters.

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