Watching TV the other night, I saw my first ad for a downballot race, for Michael Gibbons for Attorney General. It was a pretty unremarkable ad (never good news for an advertiser) but one thing stood out precisely because of its absence – Gibbons didn’t mention his party identification. I went to Mike’s website this morning to see if I could watch the ad again and find that I was mistaken, and sure enough, there is no mention of the Republican Party. Neither is there much mention of the Republican Party on his website. In fact, I had to resort to a Google search to find any, and they were all in the “Newsroom” section.
Why not? Chris Koster announces at the very top of the website that he’s a Democrat – why won’t Gibbons? The Republican Party holds the legislature and the Governor’s Mansion, and their own candidates won’t even say what party they belong to?
I’m guessing that State party was going to spend that on behalf of Gibbons and he didn’t want the Republican name in disclaimer for his candidacy. That’s actually the first thing I thought of when I heard they’d given him the big check.
It could also be a strategy of confusion – since people on the west side of the state who don’t pay much attention to politics may remember Koster as the Republican. So, they’ll think Gibbons is … the Democrat.