The Kay Ivey campaign threw a bit of a hissy fit earlier this week.
You probably missed it, since it took place mostly on old fashioned radio and rightwing blogs, but there was outrage aplenty.
Because Walt Maddox, who’s running against Ivey for governor, released his first statewide campaign ad and revealed that he’s both pro-life and pro-second amendment.
And whooooo boy, the Ivey campaign went crazy.
In a bizarre, angry statement, Ivey’s handlers called Maddox a liar — an allegation for which they offered zero proof — and then tossed in some Sarah Palin-like buzzwords and pretended to be just aghast that Maddox would say such things.
“Walt Maddox promises not to lie, yet he just told two lies in 30 seconds. That takes lying to a whole new level – even for a politician like Walt Maddox,” the Ivey campaign wrote, and then paused for a breath.
While that all might seem a bit over the top, it’s actually understandable.
Because the phony issues of abortion and guns are all the Ivey campaign has.
If they can’t use those, and instead have to run on Ivey’s record of staying the hell out of sight, they’re toast. And they know it.
So, they can’t sit idly by and allow Maddox to tell people what he believes. They have to attack him and call him a liar.
And as proof of his lies, they offer … well, nothing.
Because mayors, like governors, don’t have a voice in the abortion argument. So, Maddox has no record of opposing abortion. He has two children, so he’s at least been pro-life twice. And there’s nothing to suggest that he doesn’t believe exactly what he says he does.
As for guns, I have a newsflash for you rightwingers: lots of people on the left own and enjoy shooting firearms of all sorts. Quite a few of us are pretty good at it. And even more of us think that owning a gun for personal protection is a right that we’d like to protect.
The fact is there are a whole bunch of Democrats who fall all over the map on both issues. Because both issues, despite what the fringes of both sides would have you believe, are incredibly complicated and nuanced.
Of course, that’s not the way the Ivey campaign wants to present them. There’s only abortion and not abortion, guns and not guns.
But how Ivey herself would respond to the specifics of each question — for example, what would she do in the instances of rape, or does she favor stronger protections to prevent the mentally ill from obtaining firearms — is unknown.
That’s because she’s refused to debate, where the specifics of complicated issues often get exposed as candidates go back and forth and voters are given an opportunity to better understand the issues and the candidates’ positions.
Ivey has run scared from those, because she knows the truth.
Walt Maddox isn’t some super-liberal. He’s a moderate with a better track record of actually doing things. If Ivey participated in a debate with Maddox, and his actual views and ideas were presented side-by-side with hers, all the PAC money in the world couldn’t save her.
Instead of debating, Ivey continues to hide behind her PR people and participate in 2-minute press scrums and softball radio interviews — places where she can toss out folksy soundbites without ever being truly challenged on her beliefs, lack of ideas and zero accomplishments.
Her handlers are hoping to do just enough to distract voters from these facts.
Maddox took away two of their shiny objects this week.
That’s why they were so mad.
