The Commissioner Goes for the Double Negative

Insurance Commissioner Garamendi claims that the insurance industry has launched a "negative ad campaign" against him in his run for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor.  As Decs&Excs has opined previously, the industry's ads (1) aren't all that negative and (2) are directed against the Commissioner's proposed regulations, and not against the Commissioner personally.  (Mr. Garamendi will be out of office at the Department of Insurance at the end of the year whether he becomes Lieutenant Governor or not, so there's little direct benefit in working for his defeat.)

For a real negative ad, one need look no further than this official Garamendi spot targeting his primary opponent, state Senator Jackie Speier.  The Garamendi campaign describes the ad, which manages to "go negative" as to both the insurance industry and Senator Speier, thus:

Our latest television advertisement highlights John Garamendi’s record of taking on the special interests in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.  In contrast, the ad points out that his opponent, State Senator Jackie Speier, has accepted hundreds-of-thousands of dollars from special interests like insurance companies and Enron, while refusing to crack down on corporate criminals.

A nice bit of rhetorical jiu jitsu there, conflating the entire class of  "insurance companies" with Enron and similar "corporate criminals."

The link comes via Bill Bradley’s NEW WEST NOTES, which reports that the Speier campaign is calling the Garamendi ad (no surprise) "misleading."  Says Bradley: "It could make it sound to the casual viewer like [Speier] took hundreds of thousands from Enron, which she did not."  The Speier campaign has posted its response to the ad via California Congressman Mike Thompson.

Even though it is plainly "negative," the Garamendi spot is small beer indeed compared to the sludge being slung in the Democratic primary for Governor, which has descended to such low levels that even prominent Democratic weblogs like Daily Kos are washing their hands of the whole affair.

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Reminder: Decs&Excs' accumulated reporting on the 2006 election hubbub between Commissioner Garamendi and the insurance industry is available for one-stop perusal in the Politics of Insurance - Campaign 2006 archive category.

Comments

[Ron]

Exactly! These attacks on Jackie Speier have been unprovoked and just plain nasty. Its nice to see that she's not stooping to his level. Garamendi seems like a complete hypocrite here.