Bernie Sanders took negative super PAC ad attacking him and turned it into $800,000 in campaign donations.
The Boston Globe reported:
On June 25 a super PAC linked to former
Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, another declared Democratic
candidate, spent about $10,000 on online ads critical of Sanders’ record
on gun control, which is, for a Democrat, notably friendly to gun
owners.
Sanders’ team fought back, using the same rhetoric
that Warren so effectively employs against her many critics: Frame the
attack as an assault on the progressive movement and raise buckets of
cash off of it.
The day after the ads began, Sanders’
campaign blasted an e-mail to supporters requesting help. Within 48
hours they’d raised more than $800,000, according to a source familiar
with his fund-raising.
What the super PAC supporting Martin O’Malley
quickly found out was that attacking Bernie Sanders makes him stronger.
Hillary Clinton has the right strategy. Clinton respects Sen. Sanders
and his supporters. Her campaign has said only nice things about
Sanders. A few of Clinton’s supporters, namely Sen. Claire McCaskill,
tried to attack Sanders, but their efforts have gone as well as the
O’Malley supporting super PAC ad.
Bernie Sanders is running a grassroots insurgency
campaign that by nature will only grow stronger if it is attacked
through negative campaigning. The O’Malley campaign made the decision to
go negative early because they appear to have been caught off guard by
the quick rise of Sanders.
O’Malley has found his campaign turned into an
afterthought that has been washed out to sea by the tidal wave of
populist support for Bernie Sanders.
For
years, a key theme for Sanders has been undoing Citizens United.
Attacking Bernie Sanders with a super PAC ad played into his strengths.
Any super PAC that tries to take down Sanders should expect their
efforts to completely backfire.
No comments:
Post a Comment