You're ugly and your mother dresses you funny.

Serious question. If you’re a politics nerd like me, has a negative campaign ad ever changed your mind in favor of the candidate who ran the ad? Simply, do they work?

Scientific American says they are more memorable but research is inconclusive as to whether they changes minds. Journalist's Resource says “such ads may work to both ‘shrink and polarize the electorate’.”

Sadly, the Democratic primary run off for the Georgia 7^th has turned ugly over the last three weeks. Until that time, I admired the race for how high road and issue focused it was. But as next Tuesday’s runoff approaches, the knives have come out. David argued that Carolyn had served on a budget committee during the great recession and had to make some tough decisions about which programs to cut. Which of course means she didn’t care about education. Carolyn argued that David had not voted prior to running for office. Which of course means he does not care about all the awful things Trump has said and done.

The flyers that have been arriving in the mail over the last week or so over the last week or so have skewed negative. And it’s the typical nonsense that you see. The slightly out of focus black and white frame capture of the other candidate making them look sinister.  The prior public service taken completely out of context. The postcard covered with pictures of Trump and some of his more vile quotes.

I gotta say, though, this is negative campaigning on a modest, Democratic primary. It does not even come close to the mean stupidity we’ve see from our Republican gubernatorial candidates. No deportation trucks or blowing shit up.

This diminishes both candidates. And more importantly, from a campaign perspective, was anybody’s mind changed? Are you more or less likely to show up for the runoff, which will likely be very low turnout and decided by a small number of votes? For myself, I’m just a little bit less enthusiastic about showing up.  I will no doubt. And after the run off, I’ll support the winner, knock on doors and vote for them in November. But I’ll be a little less excited.