Soon-to-be-former Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) made a serious, perhaps fatal, error when she went negative against challenger Kay Hagan in the closing days of her re-election campaign.
Her "Godless" attack ad, in which she employed an actress to read the words "there is no God" over a picture of Hagan, did inspire people to vote and make donations.
Just not in favor of Dole.
Turns out, Sen.-elect Kay Hagan got 3,600 contributions within 48 hours of Dole airing of the controversial ad, which centered on Hagan's attendance at a fund-raiser at the Boston home of someone active in the atheist community. The Democrat from Greensboro had immediately used the "godless" ad as an e-mail fund-raising tool, and it paid off.Congratulations to Senator-elect Hagan.
"I told Hagan's campaign, 'This is the reason you're getting money from me — I want you to know this is not hurting you, this has helped you,'" said Lowe said, who gave $50 to Hagan and called Dole, R-N.C., several times to complain.
The 3,600 donations came from a cross-section of society.
"We got responses from people who identify themselves as atheists and every religion under the sun who found that ad offensive," said Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan, who said the campaign hadn't yet calculated the dollar figure raised as a result.
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Besides the campaign contributions to Hagan, another way to judge the impact of the TV ads is the point spread in the race. Hagan won with 53 percent of the vote, compared to Dole's 44 percent, said Tom Jensen, a spokesman for Public Policy Polling in Raleigh.
Hagan had been running 4 points ahead of Barack Obama during early voting, which except for a couple days, didn't include the period of time when Dole was airing the ads, Jensen said.
But on Election Day, after the ad had saturated air waves and news talk shows, Hagan ran 11 points ahead of President-elect Obama, a fellow Democrat who beat GOP nominee John McCain.
Good riddance to Liddy Dole. She earned the shame and disgrace with which she now ends her political career.
