NC Senate race tops nation in negative ads

Don’t blame North Carolinians if the onslaught of political ads are getting them down: The state has the highest number of negative Senate campaign ads in the country.

A new report by The Center for Public Integrity found Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), her challenger North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) and their allies aired more than 10,800 negative TV ads last week alone, more than one per minute.

{mosads}Hagan and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee led the way with more than 4,300 negative TV ads from Oct. 14-20, compared to Tillis and the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s 2,900 ads.

Only 24 ads over that same time period had a positive tone, according to the Center for Public Integrity’s analysis. That’s just about 0.2 percent of all ads over that week.

As for outside groups, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees aired 1,165 TV ads bashing Tillis, while Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS aired 815 ads against Hagan.

North Carolina might top the list, but it’s not alone in negativity.

Only 5 percent of ads in Georgia’s Senate race between David Perdue (R) and Michelle Nunn (D) are positive spots, with Nunn airing more than 2,300 more negative ads than Perdue or any other political group.

Nine percent of the TV ads in Iowa’s Senate race between state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) and Rep. Bruce Braley (D) are positive, according to the report. 

In a win for optimists, the Center for Public Integrity found that the Senate race in New Hampshire showed a huge gain in positive ads. Last week, 28 percent of TV ads in the race were positive, up from 8 percent in the week before.