Trump Is Not Stopped By Malicious Ads.

Here’s why negative ads against Donald Trump haven’t worked so far

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Tribune News Service

NEW YORK (TNS) — If establishment Republicans think that running negative television advertisements will quell the wave of support for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, Midwest voters say they should think again.

While waiting for Trump to arrive for a rally in Davenport, Iowa, on Saturday, voters who say they are still weighing their options said they would either not be swayed or be more likely to support the real estate mogul if they were to see negative ads on their televisions bashing the GOP front-runner.

“If anything, I think it’ll stir up Trump’s base more and maybe engage them more,” Curt Anderson, a 20-year-old from Orion, Illinois, said.

Brenda Wolf, 70, from Bettendorf, Iowa, who has still not decided who to vote for, said negative ads would not change her mind. “That has nothing to do with us,” she said. As she pointed to the Trump podium in front of her, she added, “This has everything to do with us.”

In recent weeks, as Trump continues to lead in the polls and the Republican establishment grows more anxious about his potential to ultimately become the party’s nominee, negative ads targeting the billionaire have begun cropping up.

John Kasich’s super PAC, New Day for America, has already invested $2.5 million in hostile ads on television, radio, online and through direct mail.

Earlier this year, a Club for Growth super PAC spent $1 million in Iowa on ads attacking Trump. Those efforts do not seem to be piercing Trump’s Teflon coating, as he continues to hold a commanding lead in national and early state polling.

In November, The Wall Street Journal reported that Liz Mair, the former online communications director for the Republican National Committee, and other establishment figures in the party worried about Trump’s rise are forming a “self-styled guerrilla campaign” called Trump Card LLC. The group will be backed by anonymous donors with a goal to take down the front-runner.

On Saturday, Trump stormed Iowa with back-to-back rallies. The first, in Spencer, attracted an audience of 1,500. The second, in Davenport, had an audience of 2,500, according to the Trump campaign. For those in the audience still shopping around, seeing a negative ad against Trump from an establishment figure would almost certainly backfire.

“They got us into this mess, so why listen to them?” said Kim, a 49-year-old from Highland, Illinois.

“They’re the reason we’re in the state we’re in. It’s career politicians that don’t have my interests in mind,” Kim’s husband, Jeff, 49, said. “The more our people run negative ads against other people in our party, the more it makes me mad.”

Trump routinely presents himself to voters as an anti-establishment, outsider candidate, an image that supporters cite as being among their top reasons for backing him. That’s one reason that negative advertisements against Trump may prove ineffective, according to Bloomberg Politics’ advertising analyst Ken Goldstein.

“If you believe that people are still shopping around and if you believe that all of these polls are simply measuring people who are not actually going to show up on a cold February night, then by advertising all you’re doing is mobilizing more people who wouldn’t vote anyway and are probably not going to vote for an establishment candidate regardless,” Goldstein, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, said.

Many voters in Davenport seemed to concur.

“I would probably want to vote for him more,” Mary, 45, from Wheatland, Iowa, said when asked about the effect of anti-Trump ads.

Goldstein does, however, think that negative advertising could hurt Trump in Iowa if it targets one specific group: evangelicals, who make up 60 percent of Iowa caucus goers. Turning them against Trump by using targeted mailings might prove effective, Goldstein said, if the candidate’s past positions on abortion rights and advocacy for a single-payer healthcare system were targeted.

“Why was advertising so devastating to Mitt Romney? Because at the end of the day Mitt Romney’s main message was ‘I’m a job creator’ while the Obama message was ‘No, you’re a job destroyer,'” Goldstein said. “If Trump’s big message is ‘I’m aggressive, I’m tough, I’m conservative’ then saying things that don’t knock at his strengths may not matter.”

Voters who said they would not be swayed by ads that focus on Trump’s rhetoric on the trail would be more likely to look into whether the charges were true, Goldstein argues. Those in attendance at Trump’s rallies over the weekend seemed to prove Goldstein’s point.

“I think if I fact-checked it myself and looked into whatever negative aspect they are pointing out I would take that a lot more seriously,” Ryan, 30, from Silvis, Illinois, said.

–Kendall Breitman
Bloomberg News

The Attack On Trump Starts. Major Money Is Going After Him

Club for Growth Rips 'Worst Republican' Trump in $1 Million Ad Blitz

(Club for Growth)

By Bill Hoffmann   |   Tuesday, 15 Sep 2015 02:18 PM

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The war of words between Donald Trump and Club for Growth escalated to a new high Tuesday as the conservative political action group launched two nasty TV ads slamming the billionaire developer.

“Club for Growth Action is committed to exposing Donald Trump for the liberal he is on economic policy,” the group said as it announced the release of two 30-second ads which it is paying over $1 million to air.

Story continues below video.

“Donald Trump is the worst Republican candidate on economic issues,” Club for Growth president David McIntosh said.

“It’s astonishing that he’s even running as a Republican. Trump is the most liberal candidate on fiscal policy in the whole field, with the possible exception of Bernie Sanders.

“His angry style may reflect the deep frustration Americans have with Washington leaders who have failed to keep their promises. But the policies he’d implement would benefit himself and his own interests, not the American people. That makes him the worst kind of politician.”

The ads come a week after Trump slammed the group, which advocates limited government and tax cuts, as a “phony” organization for threatening to run negative ads against him after it asked him for a $1 million donation.

Trump called on Club for Growth to release the letter its president, David McIntosh sent on June 2 requesting the donation. When Club for Growth didn't bite, Trump tweeted out a copy of the letter himself.

In a Sept. 6th message on Twitter, Trump wrote: The phony Club For Growth, which asked me in writing for $1,000,000 (I said no), is now wanting to do negative ads on me. Total hypocrites!” He repeated his claim in a Twitter response on Tuesday.
But McIntosh said Tuesday:

“Club for Growth Action is committed to exposing Trump for the liberal he is on taxes, trade, health care, and eminent domain.

“These ads let Trump speak for himself, about his Democrat core and his full support for giving government the power to take private property and give it to corporations.”

Story continues below video.

In one ad, images of Trump, and Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders are flashed as viewers are asked, “Which presidential candidate supports higher taxes, national health care, and the Wall Street bailout? It’s Donald Trump.”

Trump is then heard saying, “In many cases, I probably identify more as a Democrat.”

In the second ad, images of property being condemned are shown as a narrator says: “The Supreme Court’s Kelo decision gave government massive new power to take private property and give it to corporations. Conservatives have fought this disaster. What’s Donald Trump say about the decision?”

Trump is heard saying: “I happen to agree with it one hundred percent.”
The Club for Growth narrator continues: Trump supports eminent domain abuse because he can make millions while we lose our property rights. Trump: the worst kind of politician.”

The Club for Growth PAC says it “endorses and raises money for House and Senate candidates who stay true to the fundamental principles of limited government and economic freedom.”

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The War Begins Between Republicans And Conservative Groups. This Will Guarantee A Democratic Victory!

Conservative Groups To Boehner: You Want A War? You Got It.

December 13, 2013 by Sam Rolley

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House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) lashed out against “outside” conservative organizations this week for criticizing an $85 billion bipartisan budget compromise that many conservatives feel doesn’t do enough to cut spending. Now, conservative groups are ramping up their criticisms of the Speaker.

The lawmaker didn’t name any specific groups during a critical press conference Thursday, but it is well known that organizations like Heritage Action and Club for Growth have called out Boehner for his willingness to meet Democrats’ demands in the past. The House Speaker said that the “outside” groups, which have strongly supported many Tea Party candidates, have gone too far this time.

In a statement, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin responded, saying that Boehner has declared war on the American people for trying to hold politicians accountable.

She said:

Speaker Boehner thinks ‘outside groups’ are the problem? Does he really think the American voters who are involved in the tea party, who got him elected, should not demand accountability of their elected representatives?

The Speaker’s anger and ire is misdirected towards the wrong people. President Obama is choosing whether to enforce laws in the country or not by whim. He changes policy through press conferences and tweets. He rewrites law by fiat.  Members of Congress renege on their pledges not to spend more or increases taxes on hardworking Americans.

Martin also issued a stern warning to Boehner, the “ruling class politician” who only pretends to be conservative while remaining a “tax-and-spend liberal”:

Frankly, Mr. Speaker, continuously making promises and then breaking them is how you lose credibility with the American people. Pitting your colleagues against their constituents is how you lose credibility with your conference.  Not upholding conservative principles is how you lose credibility with the voters who will find someone else if you are not willing to do your job.

Meanwhile, Heritage Action said that Boehner is simply trying to pick a fight because a political quarrel will serve to distract Americans from a serious conversation about inadequacies in the budget proposal.

“The Speaker is trying to turn this into a boring fight between outside groups and himself so we are not having a policy debate about whether or not this is a good deal,” Heritage Action CEO Michael Needham said Friday.

Needham added, “This deal increases spending, this deal increases taxes. And that is bad for the county and that is what we want to be focused on.”

Furthermore, according to Needham, Boehner is giving conservatives a taste of what to expect when immigration reform debates begin next year.

Responding to Boehner’s charge that certain conservative groups knew the government shutdown strategy wouldn’t be a success for the GOP in repealing Obamacare, but pushed conservative lawmakers to support it nonetheless, Needham said: “The Speaker is being absurd.”

Needham noted that Heritage hasn’t even been working to totally repeal Obamacare in recent months, which he sees as impossible as long as President Barack Obama is in office.

“If I thought we could repeal Obamacare I would have spent the month of August on a ‘repeal Obamacare’ tour. We spent it on a defund tour,” he said.

Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), one of the authors of the controversial budget deal, sought to soften Boehner’s criticism along with conservative blowback on Friday.

“He was frustrated that these groups came out in opposition to our budget agreement before we reached a budget agreement,” Ryan said, according to The Hill.

Ryan went on to try to distance himself from Boehner’s stance.

“I was frustrated, too,” he said. “But I think these are very important elements of our conservative family. I would prefer to keep those conversations within the family. And I think he was just basically voicing his frustration with their opposition before we had reached our agreement.”

He added: “I think these taxpayer groups are indispensable to keeping taxpayer interest accounted for, keeping people accountable. And we sometimes have difference of opinions on tactics. We all believe the same thing with respect to our ultimate goal.”