Moving toward the mid-term election finish line I can only hope that candidates throughout the region do not ruin any veracity that some have used throughout their campaign in the last few days leading up to Election Day.

There are races within the county, our region, the state of Ohio and across the country that are extremely close.

Unfortunately, we have seen an incredibly high amount of attack ads in this election cycle with candidates worrying more about getting a message out of why their opponents are bad.

Some races have become more heated and contentious as the campaigns have moved toward Nov. 4.

If you have checked your mailbox or turned the television on within the last month, you have certainly been inundated with campaign material. I was watching the TV earlier this week and made it a point to count the political ads that came during a commercial block. When the program came back on, the final count was five consecutive political ads with most directed against their opponent, not why the given candidate would be the best choice.

Regrettably, this has become the norm in political advertising. I can remember as a teen the candidates worrying more about telling the voters why they would be the best choice with some shots at their opponents mixed in.

Today, we see it is the complete opposite.

Some of the ads we see today are unequivocally false while some use material about their opponent from more than 10 years ago.

At the same time, I am not naive and can certainly understand and expect that some campaigning will spin an argument to benefit their campaign. But the direction political campaigns are going is unnerving.

Let’s be real about what we see, and if we always believed all of the information being spewed, there would not be a single candidate worth voting for during an election cycle.

Ultimately, I feel that when these tactics are the primary focus of a campaign, they are not doing themselves, their constituents or our country any favors. That is because we are left wondering if a particular candidate will actually be able to work effectively with others who differ with them or just come out in the end and play the blame game.

Those are not things that will move our county, state and country forward.

After the election is over and all the votes are counted, I want a group of elected officials who want to work their tails off to fix the things that are wrong and improve the things that are right.

Each candidate needs to remember that in the grand scheme of things, political parties should not matter because at the end of the day, we all wear the same colors.

Red, white and blue.

 

Josh Morrison is the general manager at The Tribune. To reach him, call 740-532-1441 ext. 16 or by email at josh.morrison@irontontribune.com.