The primary is coming to a close, and it’s time to pick a side.
With relatively low turnout in early voting, we’re hoping there’s a big showing on Election Day. Residents should vote their conscience, whoever they pick.
Values matter, and because the quality of each candidate’s primary campaign signals how effective they’ll be in November, electability matters too. For a Republican to flip Democrat-held seats in a majority-blue state, they have to attract Democrat voters in the general election. That’s why we’re backing Mark Ronchetti.
A lot of mud has been flung during this primary. We’ve done our best to fact check and contextualize many of the attacks waged between candidates.
Here, we examine some of the reasons that went into our decision to vote Ronchetti in the primary.
Did Mark Do Dow Dirty?
Last week, we wrote in “ It’s Time to Redefine ‘Negative’ Campaigning “ about the difference between campaign ads that were “not positive” and those that were factually incorrect. Some Conservatives in the state, as well as some Democrats, argued that Ronchetti’s ad exposing a child molestation case at state legislator Rebecca Dow’s daycare was unfair and should have been off limits.
We disagree.
Dow’s daycare scandal was as fair game in the primary as it would have been in the general election.
Based on the news reports and court records that are available, the ad Ronchetti ran was true. KOAT fact-checked it. We fact-checked it. The Ronchetti campaign itself fact-checked it, putting all of the documentation from the case online, at DowRecord.com. If there was documentation proving Dow wasn’t involved, she should have provided it.
The information is not only true to the best of our knowledge, but it’s relevant, and Dow’s failure to anticipate its release speaks to a level of political naïvety that wouldn’t have stood up against Democrats in the general election.
Was it overkill?
While Ronchetti has been up in the polls, the betting odds, and the fundraising, it’s hard to say whether or not he needed the ad to beat Dow. Running it, though, accomplished three things that fare well for Ronchetti in the general election, should he win June 7.
One is that it showed Ronchetti is taking nothing for granted. In politics, you fight every battle as if…
