News-Record.com

Wednesday's lead editorial.

Bev Perdue is a nice person, but voters might have gotten a different idea from some of the political ads shown on television this spring.

Her opponent's and her own.

Perdue, North Carolina's lieutenant governor, announced last week she won't run any more negative ads in her campaign to win the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

"It's been hard for me to look people in the face," she told reporters. She added that even friends and relatives were critical of the nasty tone the race had taken.

As if to prove the point, her rival's campaign manager answered: "This is the clearest evidence to date that she's losing the campaign."

State Treasurer Richard Moore first launched attack ads last month and immediately began to climb in the polls. Perdue responded in kind, with the result that two candidates who once looked like worthy contenders suddenly seemed sleazy.

Perdue's pledge to stop throwing mud could be calculated to clean her image. She gained some positive news coverage and opened a 10-point lead over Moore in a Public Policy Polling survey released Monday. That result "provides evidence that voters support Bev's decision to run a positive campaign focused on the issues that matter most," the Perdue campaign said.
Whether that holds true through May 6 remains to be seen.

Candidates, including Moore, ought to keep it positive. If they have the right qualifications, they can promote themselves without attacking their opponents.

It's fair to talk about relative qualifications and to express disagreement. If a candidate believes she has a better record and smarter solutions to problems, she's entitled to say so. Unless she's running against someone like Jim Black or Thomas Wright, however, she ought to stay away from suggesting her opponent is some sort of crook.

Perdue has a particular reason to keep it clean because she's a proponent of publicly funded campaigns. If she thinks taxpayers should fork out money for candidates, she should set a positive example of how campaigns ought to be conducted. The public probably doesn't want to pay for slanderous TV ads.

Politicians don't have to go negative -- at least not in their advertising. The presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton might snipe at each other, but their TV ads are positive. U.S. Senate candidate Kay Hagan's initial ad touted her credentials and didn't go after anyone. It made a good impression. In the Republican gubernatorial race, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory's TV spots have pointed out what he thinks needs fixing in Raleigh, but he hasn't engaged in personal attacks.

Voters decide what kind of campaigning works and what doesn't. If they respond to the politics of personal destruction, then that's what candidates will give them. The nicest candidate shouldn't necessarily win, but neither should the meanest.