NC's Senate battle has most negative ads in nation

North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race has the most negative political advertisements of any race in the nation — in one recent week, more than one negative TV ad aired every minute.

More than 10,800 U.S. Senate election-focused ads that aired between Oct. 14 and 20 featured some content that attacked either incumbent Democrat Sen. Kay Hagan or Republican challenger Thom Tillis, according to a Center of Public Integrity analysis of preliminary data from Kantar Media/CMAG, an ad tracking firm.

Ferrel Guillory, a UNC journalism professor and director of the Program on Public Life, said the results aren’t surprising because the state has grown accustomed to negative TV commercials since the 1984 U.S. Senate election between Jim Hunt and Jesse Helms. At the time, it was the most expensive race in the country.

The commercials now are more intense, he said, but are generally in keeping with North Carolina’s trends in political advertising.

Tillis on Monday released a campaign ad calling attention to the degree of negative advertising.

“If you believed all you see on TV, you’d conclude that Sen. Hagan is a bad person, and that I am too,” he said in the 30-second spot. “It’s a shame.”

Dave Levinthal, senior reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, said the number of negative ads appears to be a record for a U.S. Senate race.

Levinthal said this is happening because the race is so close and both candidates are not widely popular.

He called the election a “race to the bottom,” in which the goal is to make each other look bad.

“There is this mutual never-ending escalation in terms of spending and messaging, even when most voters have made up their mind at this point,” Levinthal said.

The fact that North Carolina is a key state in determining the control of the U.S. Senate also adds to the intensity of the election, he said.

“A single Senate race could give balance of power to the Republicans or Democrats, and in these incredibly tight races, both sides go in because they know if they win in N.C., they may win everything, they may win the Senate,” he said.

Research from the American Psychological Association has shown that negative ads create more thoughtful voters than positive ads.

“(They do) because when they’re negative, they make you focus on stuff they did that is negative rather than other things they have done,” said UNC junior Kristina Reece.

Guillory said the intensity of campaigns helps to drive up voter turnout. Still, he said that voters are often disgusted by negative ads and that they can discourage voters from going to the polls.

He said “bad” negative ads attack the opponent by distorting his or her character while “good” negative ads can criticize the opponent while still informing voters.

Levinthal said the impact of the large number of negative ads won’t be determined until Election Day.

“It’s not over yet. There is still a week and a half, and it is perhaps the only race this year where more than 100,000 ads in a single Senate race will probably cause anyone, even the most devout of political junkies, to toss up their television setup,” he said on Friday.

state@dailytarheel.com