A Rose By Any Other Name

Matt Stoller at MyDD is on a roll with this Adwatch of his. Today, he makes a good point about swing voters and party affiliation.

My thinking is this: any voter who will shrink from voting for you after finding out you’re a Democrat isn’t a swing voter at all, but a Republican partisan who isn’t going to be voting for you anyway. Especially when you consider most ballots list your party affiliation right next to your name, so by hiding your party affiliation in television ads you are only delaying the inevitable.

Moreover, by hiding your party affiliation, you are making it more difficult for the Democrat party brand to be associated with good, moderate, credible voices.

All around, it’s a bad idea.

You should reach out to swing voters on the issues, not on something as superficial as avoiding party ID.