Sergey Kadinsky

Written Works

This report was written for the Journalism and Politics class which I took at CCNY in Fall 2006. The class was taught by David Diaz, a former news anchor at CBS news in New York.

Political ads and Polls in

The Senate Race for New Jersey

The background for the election campaign between New Jersey Senate candidates Tom Kean Jr. and Bob Menendez began in 2004, when first-term Senator Jon Corzine was elected governor, and named Congressman Bob Menendez of Hudson County as his successor. Menendez, a Democrat comes from a Democratic Party background that has been tainted by corruption allegations, but at the same time committed to defending immigrants’ rights, abortion rights, and a timeline on withdrawal from Iraq. His opponent, Tom Kean Jr. has been described by opponents as being too supportive of President Bush in the war on terrorism, abortion restrictions, and privatization of social security.

While these issues are at the most frequently cited by both campaigns, a poll released by the Bergen County Record on October 30 shows that thirty percent of voters see the War in Iraq as a leading concern in their election decision.[1] Tied with the same party as the president, who has a 37 percent approval rating, the Menendez campaign has often used images of President Bush in its ads against Kean. One ad presented by the pro-Menendez site www.perfectlywrong.com shows an interview between Tom Kean Jr. and news anchor Katie Couric, where Kean fails to appear at a fundraiser in his honor that featured Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney. When asked about his absence, Kean replied that Bush has “An open invitation to come to this state,” without directly answering Couric’s question whether Kean would personally allow Bush to campaign by his side. The ad interprets Kean’s answer as a failure to distance himself from Bush.[2]

On the subject of Kean’s personality and the state Democratic Party’s history of corruption, pollster Del Ali of Research 2000 claims, “In any other political year, the Republicans would have won that seat.” In reference to the importance of Iraq and the low approval rating of the president, Ali believes. “The only thing saving Menendez is the climate out there.”[3] While Kean’s ads have portrayed him as independent who demanded the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the opposing side used Kean’s comments from a televised debate against him, quoting Kean’s assessment of Bush as a “B-.” The quote was repeated this quote over images of a flooded New Orleans, the “Mission Accomplished” banner used by President Bush during the early months of the war, and a crashing glacier with the caption “global warming.” The minute and a half-long online ad, shows that Kean’s assessment of Bush fails to take into account the president’s shortcomings on key domestic and foreign issues. The ad concludes with Menendez responding that his assessment of Bush lies between a D and an F.[4]

The central focus of Kean’s campaign is fighting corruption, and it appears to be working. When asked by the New York Times/CBS poll about Menendez, the first thing that many voters identify Menendez with is corruption. At the same time, 72 percent of voters remain supportive of Menendez, considering a Democratic majority in the Senate to be their most important concern, even if it means electing someone with a reputation of corruption. In fact, 62 percent of the voters polled consider their vote for Menendez as a “direct rebuke to President Bush.”[5] Thus, it appears that both the Menendez and Kean campaigns have been effective in shaping their opponent’s negative reputation.

Seeking to improve his reputations, the Menendez campaign branched out to focus on his personal achievements and on using his opponent’s allegations against him. Ads portraying his humble background, respect for the military, and fighting terrorism, with the Statue of Liberty in the background, also helped voters overcome their objection to voting for Menendez. In the end, their opposition to the policies of President Bush, and the political experience of Menendez helped Menendez secure a respectable victory over Kean by about seven points. Exit polls show a six out of ten ratio in opposition to the war as the driving force behind Menendez’s victory, something that Kean’s $5 billion could not overcome.