I'd characterize these IDSCC slimings as offensive. What about you?

The IDSCC ravages Ron.

Clere vs. Gibson: Mercenary mailings from afar obviously differ in tone.

Yes, Virginia, there is an Indiana Democratic State Central Committee, and it emits political advertising in precisely the same fashion as its Republican counterpart, which we considered last month when Skeletor made his first appearance in the District 72 House race between incumbent Republican Ed Clere and Democratic challenger Shane Gibson: Can't avoid deleting legitimate questions, can't disavow illegitimate attack ads.

Gibson's first big mailing of the season is above, and Skeletor is below.


While it is by no means a guarantee that future Democratic mailings will uphold the positive overall tone of the one pictured above, one needn't be interested in politics, or even particularly perceptive, to grasp at a glance the profound difference in tone between the Gibson and Clere postcards.

Last month's Republican attack on Gibson features a skeleton hand that comes near being life-sized, and spews scattershot negative innuendo about Gibson, while saying nothing about Clere.

The Democratic postcard's attack on Clere (for using Skeletor to tell "lies") uses words, not pictures, and is restricted to a box less than 25% the size of the postcard's back side. Plainly (no more "Clerely" jokes from me), the Gibson mailing concerns the Democratic candidate himself and his qualifications, while the Republican mailing is a full-bore, negative attack.

Does this mean that Clere has not been attacked in past Democratic mailings? No, only that in the current round -- so far -- the huge preponderance of negativity has emanated from Clere's Indy mercenaries, and not Gibson's. I am looking for copies of a Democratic mailing last spring (we did not receive it at the 1117 ESSNA) that allegedly attacked Clere for local neighborhood school closings. If it can be found, we'll consider the charges therein, so if you have a copy, let me know.