It’s official. Former Gov. Mitt Romney has edged out former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in a contest of who ran the most negative campaign in a record year for negativity in Florida.
“I spent much of my academic career telling reporters, ‘Relax, this is not the most negative campaign ever,’ ” said Ken Goldstein, president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), which monitors political ads in Florida, according to
CNN. “Well, this is the most negative campaign ever.”
And Romney is the victor — at least when it comes to pure negativity, CMAG proclaims.
Data compiled by CMAG reveals that a total of 11,586 television spots were aired between Jan. 23-29 in Florida.
Of those, all but 953 of the 11,586 television ads that aired were deemed negative. The total of 10,633 negative spots translates into 92 percent of all ads airing in Florida during the week.
A whopping 99 percent of the 3,276 ads paid for by the Romney campaign were deemed negative, while 100 percent of the 4,969 spots sponsored by the pro-Romney Restore Our Future PAC were considered negative.
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In contrast, Gingrich and the pro-Gingrich PAC — Winning Our Future — ran fewer overall ads and more positive spots overall as a percentage of total ads.
Only 53 percent of the 1,893 spots aired by Winning our Future were considered negative, while some 95 percent of the 1,012 spots from the Gingrich campaign were deemed negative.
Some 68 percent of the negative ads were directed at Gingrich as compared to only 23 percent aimed at Romney, according to the CMAG data reported by CNN.
Less than 0.1 percent of the total ads were considered pro Romney, while 9 percent of the total ads were deemed pro Gingrich — reflecting a higher overall percentage of positive ads by the Gingrich campaign and the pro-Gingrich PAC.
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