Southern state beset by smear campaigns ahead of GOP primary
COLUMBIA, S.C. - It might not be as slimy as the 2000 Republican primary, but South Carolina voters are being besieged by nasty attack fliers, automated calls, and other political dirty tricks in a state synonymous with them.
Residents who have been on the receiving end of the suggestive e-mails and phony polls say that they're more irritating than convincing and that they quickly toss them in the electronic garbage can. But some analysts say that while the sometimes ham-fisted attacks won't influence most voters, they could sway those on the margins - and in a close race like today's primary, they could make a difference.
"South Carolinians don't seem to react like Iowans" who punished candidates for negative advertising, said Danielle Vinson, a political science professor at Furman University in Greenville. "I don't think it surfaces more often in South Carolina," but "my hunch is a lot of it is going on the ground, and not in the air" on widely-seen TV ads.
Senator John McCain of Arizona, whose hard-fought campaign against George W. Bush eight years ago was scuttled by a racially charged slur, is taking no chances this time.
In 2000, false rumors swirled that McCain's adopted daughter, Bridget, was a mixed-race child he had fathered out of wedlock. Last week, however, McCain's camp circulated fliers with photos of his wife, Cindy, carrying Bridget from "Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh" - a clear attempt to kill the rumor for good.
As extra insurance, McCain launched a high-profile "quick response" team headquartered in the state capital designed to intercept and squelch any rumors or false attacks before they gained traction. Part of the fast reaction is to put up Internet ads quickly. Yesterday, his campaign launched one that uses rival Mike Huckabee's own words praising McCain as a "hero" and "genuine conservative" to rebut allegations in automated telephone calls that McCain supports medical tests on fetuses and amnesty for illegal immigrants.
The tag line: "If you want the truth about John McCain, just ask Mike Huckabee."
On Thursday, McCain - a decorated Vietnam War veteran who spent five years in a Hanoi prison camp and famously rejected an early release - used a Web ad to counter mailers suggesting he put his well-being above that of his fellow POWs in Vietnam. That ad featured testimonials from fellow captives.
"Obviously in 2000, the magnitude was infinitely greater," McCain adviser Mark Salter said of the attacks. "We've changed our response to it. The candidate won't address the charge; we'll just bring up his record. And we've got supporters down there who will push back on whatever arrives."
Vinson said the Palmetto State has, perhaps unfairly, become associated with bare-knuckles campaigning because the state is home to a broad spectrum of voters - African-Americans, evangelical Christians, economic conservatives, social conservatives, liberals, and moderates - so it is easier to tear down an opponent than build a winning coalition.
The state's reputation was also solidified by the late Lee Atwater, a native son. A skilled, highly aggressive Republican operative, Atwater had no qualms about playing on fears and negative perceptions to help his candidates. He once engineered a whisper campaign that a white opponent was a member of the NAACP. He helped the late senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina win a close race with last-minute mailings declaring opponent Tom Turnipseed was a pro-Communist liberal.
And Atwater was behind the notorious Willie Horton ad against Michael Dukakis, former Massachusetts governor, that helped propel George H.W. Bush to the presidency.
Because of Atwater, "some people began to associate it with South Carolina," Vinson said. What made Atwater stand out was his skill and the fact he was working "in a [Democratic] state that was becoming Republican."
Though Atwater had a high profile and was closely associated with his candidates, most of the whisper campaigns and smear attacks are the work of outside groups hired by consultants one or two levels removed from the official campaigns, Vinson said.
That gives a candidate plausible deniability about any dirty tricks, she said, and makes it more difficult to trace the source of the attack.
The smear campaigns that seem most prevalent among the Republicans this time are rumors and e-mails attacking former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's Mormon faith, former Arkansas governor Huckabee's stance on immigration, and former senator Fred Thompson's position on abortion. Democrat Barack Obama has been the subject of rumors that he is secretly a Muslim; Obama, who attends a United Church of Christ, has publicly denied the rumor.
One voter, Lou Tocci of Columbia, said attack mailings and polls obviously designed to spread negative information don't sway him. But he said he can understand why such "propaganda" can have an effect on uninformed voters.
"So many people know so little about these candidates," he said. Bad information "would still be filling a void if I didn't know any better."
Sasha Issenberg of the Globe staff contributed to this report. 