I just thought I'd put this up on Jaf's recommendation as an example of a non-dirty campaign ad. Substance free, perhaps, but at least it's not smear. Read Jaf's update on the Minnesota Campaigns and their ads.
As Jaf points out, Bruce Kennedy was such a nice guy, and Minnesotans are so nice, that Kennedy, when running for office, had to make his own attack ads against himself. Like this one:
And this one:
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There is one bit of substance in her article--her taking a pay cut and thinking Congress should, too. That's an issue.
The rest is fluff, but it's also fluff Michele Bachmann has done ("I'm a mom, go me!")
I wonder if we can find a way to make positive, non-smear ads work.
(Mark Kennedy did them a few years back and he lost, but I'm okay with that, because I didn't agree with him on the issues. Oh, and his ads were also about his personality and not so much the issues.)
Addendum:
Mark Kennedy ran against Amy Klobuchar in 2006 for US Senate. I don't think she ran attack ads either. (I think the media/editorials covered the political scope.)
Klobuchar won in a landslide.
I believe her ads were positive but not fluff, since she had things she actually did as an attorney. Again, this was 4 years ago, so I don't remember all of the details.