Mrs. Clinton, the fifty-three year old first lady, announced her candidacy for senator sixteen months ago at the farm of Patrick Moynihan. Her running mate, Rick Lazio, from Long Island, is the forty-two year old republican who had just finished four terms as congressmen.

What affect did campaign ads have on the 2000 senatorial election? Negativity never reveals a positive outcome. Both Clinton and Lazio had their own strategies in persuading voters. A major issue in this particular election was "soft money". So called "soft money", is used by political parties and interest groups to basically bypass legalities on the limits of political fund-raisi

ng. These political parties and interest groups create televised commercials, radio ads, and other forms of advertisements to show support and promote a specific candidate. Often times, these advertisements are not so much promoting a candidate as they are criticizing an opponent.

For example, Hillary televised an advertisement called "Exactly" that criticized Lazio's aggression at the first debate. The ad accused Lazio as breaking the soft money agreement, being Newt Gingrich's "deputy whip" for four years, and voting for the largest education and Medicare cuts in history.(November 3, 2000) The punch line of the commercial is when the announcer said, "Lazio said he'd run a positive campaign...but he's been caught making 500,000 'reprehensible' phone calls." Mr. Lazio: "It's not what you say...it's what you actually do." Announcer: "Exactly."(November 3, 2000) In reality, the use of unregulated contributions was never put on paper; therefore, it can be interpreted in several ways. Lazio said that the two ads created by the national Republican Party did not violate the agreement. Lazio did in-fact vote for a large cut in education financing in 1995 but he recently voted in favor of aid for public education. On the issue of Medicare, he voted to r!

This issue was worth analyzing and is worth following because it had such a tremendous effect on an incredibly important decision that will affect an entire state. Knowing that New York has elected someone concerned about issues that will affect an entire state put many residents at rest.

Another advertisement done by the Clinton campaign was an attempt to make the public aware of the telephone campaign done by Lazio that accused her of supporting an act of terrorism, the sensitive issue of the bombing of the Cole. This ad is related to the one that accused Hillary of supporting terrorist groups by accepting money from the American Muslim Alliance. Clinton accused Rick of exploiting the tragedy. Unfortunately, many viewers saw this as equally insensitive. The aim of Lazio's campaign was to attract Jewish voters and remind the public of Clinton's financial relationship with the American Muslim Council. This too was considered a highly negative ad on her campaigns part.

The two candidates had two very different strategies in hopes to win the election. On November 7, 2000, Hillary Rodham Clinton prevailed as the New York State Senator elected. An election marked as the "most examined", "most unusual", and "highest-profile" political contest in thirty-six years exhausted both Democrats and Republicans. (November 8, 2000) With the results of the Federal Election Commission, it is safe to say that campaigns, especially negative ones, did not have the effect that Lazio had hoped for. Lazio spent thirty-three million dollars in a five-month period in comparison to the twenty-six million spent by Hillary Clinton in a period of sixteen months. Lazio had the edge from the beginning due to the fact that he would receive the mayor's funding and he had the political background that Clinton did not. Along with the series of strategical mistakes, it is proven that the negativity used in Lazio's cam

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Approximate Word count = 2149
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)