HANCOCK COUNTY — An incumbent’s jab at a challenger drew boos from the crowd gathered for their debate. A mailer highlighting a candidate’s financial woes – paid for by her opponent — evoked outrage among members of the local GOP.
One of Hancock County’s most contested recent local elections has also been one of the most heated in recent memory. And while some call it passion, and some say it’s just politics, longtime local political leaders say the vitriol that has emerged is unacceptable.
With 12 contested races on the local Republican ballot (no Democrats have filed to run in any county races), odds were high that some of the races would grow contentious, officials said.
But few would have predicted the animosity that’s been seen so far, they said.
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This time around, candidates have shifted their focus from promoting themselves to attacking their opponents – something top Republicans say is a disappointment and doesn’t reflect their party’s values or commitment to the community.
GOP chairwoman Janice Silvey said historically, Hancock County Republicans have been cordial; and the party’s board hasn’t been pleased with the tactics some candidates have turned to. She’s hopeful negative advertising isn’t a trend going forward.
“It’s not what we like to see,” she said. “Come Wednesday, we’ve all got to work together again.”
The negative campaigning caused a stir on social media and sparked immediate conversations among Republican Party leadership on how best to discourage outright nastiness among candidates, said vice chair Steve Leonard.
Each election cycle, the GOP runs a day-long “campaign school” for prospective candidates, giving information on important dates, election rules and procedures. Leonard said he’ll push for a lesson in clean campaigns to be added to the school.
Republican leaders need to stress that a desire to serve the community should be a candidate’s chief objective, and that should outweigh any desire to overcome an opponent, Leonard said.
“There is more to being a candidate than doing what you can to win,” he said.
Dave Scott, a former editor of the Greenfield Daily Reporter, who covered politics in Hancock County more than 20 years before his retirement, said he can’t recall a campaign season quite so tense.
In the past, any advertisement or stump speech campaign leaders put out focused on what a candidate believed they could bring to the office they were seeking — not a slew of pointed reasons not to vote for their opponent, he said.
The negative spin on these election cycle is, unfortunately, a reflection of the “overall coarsening of the culture” as a whole, Scott believes. It’s evidence of how divided and divisive politics in the United States can be, he said.
Negativity in national campaigns is something voters expect, he said. Locally, that’s not usually the case.
“There seems to be a willingness to cross a line that we didn’t use to have,” Scott said.
It’ll be the voters who send the loudest message about whether behavior like this is acceptable in Hancock County, Scott said. If they vote for the candidates who went negative, it’s an affirmation, he said; but a vote against that candidate would likely send the message that Hancock County isn’t interested in attacks.
Greenfield resident Dusty Wicker said the attacks he’s seen have left a sour taste in his mouth.
He’s a young Republican, eager to involved in the community and the party; and he knows negative advertising can be a political tactic, but it’s not one he appreciates as a voter, he said.
“Candidates are going to do what they want to do,” Wicker said, “but it didn’t sit well.”
Hancock County Democratic Party Chair Randy Johnson agreed the nastiness shown in some of the races isn’t what anyone wants to see in their home county.
“It is unfortunate, especially at the local level,” Johnson said. “You’ve got neighbors running against neighbors, and you’d like the races to just focus on who is going to do the best job.”
He hopes to negativity doesn’t affect turnout on Tuesday.
“I think it’s turning some of the county voters off,” Johnson said, “and no one wants to see that.”