Ads More Negative than Previous Years

A Report on the 2008 Presidential Nomination Ads from the Brookings Institution:

"In looking at campaign ads in this year’s presidential nominating election, prominent campaign ads were more negative than in previous races. Both parties featured open races with a large number of candidates, and the result was negativity levels that were above the historic averages. This finding raises the question of whether this fall’s general election will provide the quality of political discourse needed by voters.

According to an analysis of prominent nomination ads, 61 percent of the 2008 Democratic ads were negative, compared to 43 percent of the Republican ads. Both rates are higher than the average ad negativity of 31 percent for Democrats and 36 percent for Republicans in nominating contests from 1972-2008. Prominent ads were defined as those attracting major media attention."  [RJ]