I’ve been working in politics in-and-out for 10 years now. Campaign side, elected official side, advising, whatever, done it. It’s a dirty game because it has no choice but to be a dirty game. Want your shoes to stay clean? Keep your day job.
It’s dirty by design, there’s a binary win or loss in every election and you aren’t worth a nickel if you aren’t willing to get into the mud and do anything to get your side a win. That’s not inherently a bad thing either, it’s dirty because it matters. When you care so deeply about your city, state, or country that you go into the arena the dirtiness of it all is a direct reflection of how much it matters.
It’s a bad thing when you’re reckless about it. When you, or your campaign, or your candidate don’t know their limits bad shit happens. People get hurt, reputations get ruined, and worse. Again, that’s not to say “oppo” (opposition research) isn’t valid, it most certainly is fair game and used constantly. I’ve gladly published and ran with oppo many times, but only with the expressed knowledge that it was fair game and valid. The game after all is still the game.
What Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign did today is not in the game. Anyone from me to veteran GOP soldiers would tell you that. It was and is a disgrace. To himself, to his campaign, to his consultants, it should and will taint them for the rest of their pathetic careers.
It’s telling that the Ramaswamy campaign never really spent money on the vicious attack by Acton’s mother, rather they (or their Super-PAC it’s unclear which) paid to message test it and used a research polling company to get it out. Presumably if it tested well they’d use some of Ramaswamy’s Alzheimer drug scam proceeds, and Joe Lonsdale’s Palantir cash, to blast the airwaves.
According to sources Jai Chabria, Ramaswamy’s Chief Strategist, has spent the last several weeks teasing and bragging about the ad. Bragging that this was their October surprise and going to flip the election on its head.
Despite the braggadocio, clearly Chabria nor anyone on his team took a second to step back and looked in the mirror. Despite weeks they evidently didn’t spend any time attempting to track down the records that clearly show the absolute tragedy inflicted upon Amy Acton by her mother and step-father.
More so than just the campaign is how this came about. After the digital polling, complete with video ad, went live a recording was sent to D.J. Byrnes of The Rooster (yeah yeah editor’s note I work there but had no involvement in that) who published it.
Very shortly after Byrnes’ publicized the ad, a bat signal went out to the Conservative grifter-verse (most likely a paid one given the promoters) and Don Jr., Laura Loomer, Eric Daughtery, and more of their ilk quickly put out talking points with the ad and its disqualifying nature for Acton. This is the attention economy, and the big MAGA accounts move in sync (emphasis on the artificial nature of this) with their blunder being the fact that Acton’s past is well known and well-sourced. Even before The National Review obtained court documents there were records in the The Youngstown Vindicator easily accessible. In their rush to sink Acton, exactly two weeks away from the election, they fell face-first into the mud.
This takes us back to the game and the pitfalls to playing in the mud. This was the dirtiest attempt at an attack that I have seen. Being labeled as a liar by your mother should be devastating, in many cases it could even be campaign ending, but that isn’t the case. Acton, as easily found in a 2019 interview with The Vindicator, hasn’t even seen her mom since 1978 and their day in court.
Her step-father never stood trial for his abuse because they literally fled from court. There is a difference between unfounded allegations, the presumption of innocence before trial, and the fact that in this case there was no trial because the accused fled. If you cannot see the difference you are not a serious person.
Chabria and Ramaswamy tried pulling an extremely dirty trick, the family maneuverer, and ended up inadvertently landing the most disgusting political ad with context that myself, and several others off-the-record, have ever seen.
Perhaps there’s a lesson in there, and maybe it simply wasn’t caught because Team Ramaswamy did no due diligence. I don’t particularly think that’s the case, these are highly educated and well-respected national political consultants. Instead, I think it’s a culture of never being wrong and never having anyone in the room able to take a step back and look at perspective.
This is also campaign whose biggest gotcha on Acton was one single police report from 10 years ago about drinking that did not result in charges. They’ve used that, and had it propagated through their right-wing media ecosystem, to push repeatedly that Acton is an alcoholic with substance abuse issues. They have been in the mud, that’s what their vision has always been, they just never thought to look outside of the mud once they were in it
This ad may go down as the disaster that sunk his campaign, and hopefully by all accounts it does, but either way should elicit a firm response from across the aisles that this is not acceptable. Politics is a dangerous and dirty game, but that doesn’t mean that you need to make it worse. Have some perspective and don’t let this shit fly.
In two weeks I hope this is a lesson Team Ramaswamy never forgets and never replicates.
Editor’s Note (7:11 CST): Shortly after publication Ramaswamy at a press huddle said that it was his campaign’s ad and deflected to blaming Acton. A truly stunning admission.
The Belldumber is a free publication by Max Littman that focuses on Ohio politics. Please support continued writing by subscribing and sharing.