The Scoop

• Apr 28, 2008 4:27 pm US/Pacific
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  The Scoop: Ose/ McClintock

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The Scoop: Ose/ McClintock

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― The race to fill Congressman John Doolittle's seat hasn't even hit full stride yet, and it's already gone negative. Two candidates from the same party are duking it out, and I have the scoop on the new tactics for candidates going negative.

Everybody says they hate negative political advertising. But guess what? Negative works. And in Northern California right now, it's being taken to an extreme – with results that are being watched by political pros across the country.

I'm talking about the Republican primary race for Congress between Doug Ose and Tom McClintock. Ose is re-writing the rules for campaign ads. He's gone negative from the start, and he's made his ads hilarious at the same time.

This is groundbreaking stuff. Ose's ads are turning McClintock into a cartoon character – a carpet-bagging politician who can't pull himself away from the public hog trough. The cartoon element is highly unusual for a congressional race. Now the question is – will people still vote for a cartoon character?

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