Republican state Senate candidate Brad Hicks had the formula for victory: Say he isn’t a Republican soldier.
But there was all that money. So much!
He fell into the same trap that buried Republicans before him in Oregon Senate District 3.
Character reveals itself.
The Beatles sang about getting by with a little help from your friends. The irony of this campaign is that help from so many friends seduced Hicks into sabotaging himself. His friends meant well. Republican PACs, corporate PACs, industry trade association PACs and generous individual donors poured money into the Hicks campaign. At some point that money became a weapon he turned on himself.
The Hicks campaign started out with a Mr. Nice Guy bipartisan message. It wasn’t wholly implausible. He had been president and CEO of the local chamber of commerce, and most chambers of commerce steer clear of overt partisanship. The Medford chamber is an exception, effectively a Republican lobby with its own PAC, but that isn’t obvious to the general public. If pressed, Hicks could have said he was just the CEO and the board set the politics.
The problem was excess. The GOP money machine made ads that vented its frustration with Democratic majorities in Oregon. The result was angry, hostile, contemptuous ads. Take THAT!
A new brand emerged. Hicks became a Republican warrior. He hardened the partisan lines. Several times every hour, voters in a district with a Democratic majority hear that Democrats and their leaders are wasteful, incompetent, corrupt, evil and dangerous. It isn't how to win friends.
The race became a slugfest just like the governor’s race. Democrat Denise Krause’s campaign switched to nasty ads too. Don’t trust Hicks. Hicks would sell public land to corporations. Hicks won’t protect women’s reproductive rights. Hicks is a Trump toady.
The ugly battle clarified what the campaign is about: Republicans versus Democrats, both full of rancor. This year, with an all-too-visible Trump defining and damaging the Republican brand, a partisan brawl helps Democrats. Voters move to their respective corners of the ring.
As with Drazan’s campaign for governor, I think there is a public appetite for an independent-minded Republican who would offer an alternative to decades of Democratic control in Salem and the fatigue that comes with it. Hicks started with that message of independent bipartisanship. In my opinion, he could have won. He had the money to sell it, even if it wasn't remotely true.
But the richer his campaign got, the more capacity he had to show the underlying reality. Character reveals itself when given enough time and money. By campaigning as a Republican brawler, Hicks demonstrates to voters he would legislate like the loyal Republican his original message claimed he was not.
1 comment:
Because of the slim margins, SD3 is never unicorns farting rainbows.
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