WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Both parties are taking negative political campaigning to a new low this year, Politico reported.
Candidates have been accused of wanting to inject young girls with dangerous drugs and to gas house pets, as well as to let men beat their wives and assist child molesters by buying them Viagra or protecting their privacy, Politico said -- making the soft-on-rape ads seem almost tame.
The message in the new attacks is not that you shouldn't vote for the target because you disagree with him, Politico said; don't vote for him because he might be a sociopath.
"I've been in this business for 38 years, and every cycle there are hysterical observations that the spots this cycle are the most negative, the dirtiest, the lowest ever," Garry South, a Los Angeles-based Democratic media consultant told Politico. "It's generally never true. But there's a critical distinction" between contrasts and demonizing.
The targets of the new attack ads aren't just depicted untrustworthy or inexperienced, the report said, they're portrayed as cruel and depraved.
Democrat "Bill Brady's first priority was to sponsor a bill that would mass-euthanize sheltered dogs and cats in gas chambers," a Web video ad incumbent Republican Gov. Pat Quinn says.
Cut to a woman holding a little fluffy dog.
"Shame on Bill Brady," she says. "I am a Republican, but I don't support him for the mass euthanization of animals." Then she turns to kiss the dog. Another woman, holding a dog on a leash, also says she's a Republican, but "that's sick and wrong."
As the ad fades to black, the dog barks.
Politico said as a state legislator, Brady once proposed letting shelter dogs be euthanized in groups rather than singly, but quickly withdrew the proposal.
