In Central New York, it has been hard to turn on the television in the past month without seeing a political ad…or five. Footage of the candidates on the campaign trail or in their kitchens with their wives (because, let’s be real, there are few ladies on the ballot here in CNY), talking in soothing tones about how they’ll do great things for regular ol’ Joe New York. Their opponent will do terrible, apparently Satanic things, as evidenced by the dark red hues and excessively underlined quotes from the Post-Standard and the New York Times about all of the terrible things they’ve already done.
Locally, the most intense 30-second slammers have come from hotly-contested races for the House of Representatives in New York’s 24th District, and the race for Governor of New York.
In the House race, incumbent Dan Maffei (endorsed by Democrat and Working Families parties) has sparred with John Katko (endorsed by Republican, Conservative and Independence partes) for the past two months, each accusing the other of all manner of reckless, criminal, and un-American behavior.
Incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo (a Democrat) and Republican challenger Rob Astorino are only two of the five candidates running. Others are Howie Hawkins (Green Party), Michael McDermott (Libertarian Party) and Steven Cohn (Sapient Party). But it is between Cuomo and Astorino that the ad wars have been particularly fierce.
Astorino’s positive ads have painted him as a family man and a smart, level-headed reformer. His anti-Cuomo ads have mostly focused on the federal investigation currently underway, which seeks to uncover whether Cuomo or his staff manipulated the Moreland Commission in its investigation of government corruption, steering its lens away from Cuomo’s own office.
At the end of September, Astorino ran an ad mimicking the famous “Daisy Girl” ad from the 1964 presidential election. The original ad, supported by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign, sought to raise the stakes of the election by playing on the public’s Cold War fears. Astorino’s ad followed a similar formula, highlighting the potential issue of re-electing a governor “who may end up in jail.”
Locally, the most intense 30-second slammers have come from hotly-contested races for the House of Representatives in New York’s 24th District, and the race for Governor of New York.
In the House race, incumbent Dan Maffei (endorsed by Democrat and Working Families parties) has sparred with John Katko (endorsed by Republican, Conservative and Independence partes) for the past two months, each accusing the other of all manner of reckless, criminal, and un-American behavior.
Incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo (a Democrat) and Republican challenger Rob Astorino are only two of the five candidates running. Others are Howie Hawkins (Green Party), Michael McDermott (Libertarian Party) and Steven Cohn (Sapient Party). But it is between Cuomo and Astorino that the ad wars have been particularly fierce.
Astorino’s positive ads have painted him as a family man and a smart, level-headed reformer. His anti-Cuomo ads have mostly focused on the federal investigation currently underway, which seeks to uncover whether Cuomo or his staff manipulated the Moreland Commission in its investigation of government corruption, steering its lens away from Cuomo’s own office.
At the end of September, Astorino ran an ad mimicking the famous “Daisy Girl” ad from the 1964 presidential election. The original ad, supported by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign, sought to raise the stakes of the election by playing on the public’s Cold War fears. Astorino’s ad followed a similar formula, highlighting the potential issue of re-electing a governor “who may end up in jail.”
