Campaign mud

Kansas candidates who win Tuesday’s primary races should leave the mudslinging behind when they head to the November general election.

Candidates turn to negative campaigning, we’re told, for one reason: It works.

In several statewide primary races, this year, Kansas candidates are putting that conventional wisdom to an acid test. Just how far can candidates carry their opponent-bashing strategy before it backfires with voters?

Kansas voters have a right to be disappointed in a number of candidates this year. In these last few weeks before Tuesday’s primary election, voters have received precious little useful information about candidates in several races or their positions on important issues.

What we’re getting is charges from one candidate and denials from the other. It reminds us of a playground shouting match: “Did not!” “Did so!”

Direct-mail pieces are mostly something you would expect in a nasty campaign for a high school student body president. A flyer intended to support one candidate in the race will include barely a mention of that candidate or his or her positions. The majority of the space is given to unflattering photos of the opponent and distorted portrayals of that person’s background or voting record.

This kind of campaign behavior used to be confined to fringe candidates trying to make a name for themselves, but, this year, leading candidates in a number of races are down there, wallowing in the mud, apparently not realizing that while they may get a few good shots off at their opponents, they also are getting pretty dirty themselves.

It’s almost to the point that many voters may be inclined to vote for the candidate they have heard the least about in some races — or just skip the primary election altogether because the campaigns have left them with few positive feelings about any of the candidates.

The contentiousness of the primary races probably is being heightened by the absence of incumbent candidates in the U.S. Senate race and three of the state’s four U.S. House races. In the hot race for Kansas secretary of state, the “incumbent” was appointed only a few months ago. In all of those races, candidates see an opportunity they don’t want to let slip away. If negative campaigning works, they’re willing to give it a try.

We hope they are misjudging Kansas voters. Most of the voters we’ve talked to are disappointed in the low level of discourse during the current campaign. They may still get out and vote, but they have lost most of their enthusiasm for the candidates and certainly the campaign process.

The candidates who win next Tuesday will have the opportunity to turn over a new leaf as they head toward the general election in November. We hope they’ll take advantage of that opportunity to conduct campaigns that are civil and informative and steer clear of the mudslinging that has marred too many primary contests.