Voters Revolt Against Negative Campaign, Say ‘Keep It Positive If You Want to Win!’

Mayoral candidate Dave Freneaux is making Central history but not in a way that others may want to duplicate.

Freneaux is a running a negative campaign against fellow Republican Jr. Shelton, making personal attacks, charges, and accusations in virtually every speech, article, and Facebook post. But it doesn’t seem to be working.

Central’s two prior municipal elections in 2006 and 2010 were positive affairs, generally devoid of personal attacks. Statewide and national campaigns have become giant mud wrestling contests that leave voters wondering how the two candidates got out of jail.

But negative campaigns are apparently not what Central residents want. Freneaux supporters with access to Freneaux’s polls say they show him well behind.

The Central City News spoke about the campaign with more  than a dozen random citizens. Two said they liked Freneaux’s approach.  “He tells it like it is!” one said.

But others said they disapproved of Freneaux’s tactics with a majority strongly disapproving.

Here are the comments we heard:

• “Tell us what your plans are, what you are going to do!   We don’t want to hear you run down the other guy.”

• “Every time I’ve heard Dave Freneaux speak, all he talks about is the fact that Jr. Shelton took bankruptcy four years ago.  So what?  Didn’t he hear that Louisiana has been through three or four recessions and that hundreds of thousands of people in this state have taken bankruptcy through no fault of their own?”

• “We’ve all had our problems, but Freneaux seems joyous that a wonderful business went down and a good family lost so much.  I can’t stand listening to him.”

• “Negative, negative, negative. That’s all that comes out of his mouth.  This is why we have a division in this town.  Some people on one side want to spew hateful personal attacks against good people on the other side.  But in a way, I’m glad he’s doing it. It lets people see the man he really is!”

• “What he’s saying in this campaign is just a continuation of what he’s been saying in his newspaper for the past four years.  Anyone that disagrees with him is attacked mercilessly.”

• “I’ve tried to stay out of the controversies in Central, but the ugliness he spits out has been an eye-opener for me.  I’m not on the fence anymore.”

• “This is the politics of personal destruction.  It is practiced in every campaign by the Democrats at the national level, and it is despicable.  It’s just a shame to have this come to our Central.”

• “He apparently doesn’t understand the voters.  Can’t he see that he is destroying any chance he had to be elected by attacking Mr. Shelton?’

By the way, the Central City News has a policy against accepting negative attack ads, and we make candidates prove any claims made in advertising.

MISUSE OF FACEBOOK. Over the past few years, a lot of people in Central have misused Facebook..  Facebook should be such a positive thing but some people in Central use it to slam each other and create

lifelong enemies. Freneaux has been in the middle of that for years.

However, the way he has used Facebook during the campaign has been most unusual.  In the past few months, he has been on Facebook practically full-time, frantically jumping from one Facebook page to another to make posts and argue with his critics.  It was not unusual for him to post on five pages simultaneously, quarrelling and doing battle with anyone who dared to disagree.  For quite awhile, he included in virtually every post an attack on Jr. Shelton.

So people who only read his paper have one view of Freneaux’s “negative” attack campaign.  Those who follow him on Facebook probably see an even more intense focus on the negative.

Meanwhile, Jr. Shelton has stayed completely above the fray, saying nothing critical about Freneaux and largely ignoring Freneaux’s attacks.

TIME MANAGEMENT. In a campaign, just as in life, a candidate has to decide how to spend his time.  While Jr. Shelton has been out walking door to door in every neighborhood in Central, Freneaux has been tearing up Facebook.  It will be interesting to see which candidate used his time most widely.

WORDS TO REMEMBER. I seldom read Freneaux’s articles, but every once in awhile, someone sends me one they want me to see.  Today I received one, and it is must reading, a jewel, a bit of wisdom Freneaux wrote back on March 20, 2010, before Russell Starns launched him in the newspaper business.

Here’s what Freneaux posted then:

“Often when people use negative politics in an effort to gain support for their candidates, it backfires.  The quickest way to lose MY vote is to tell me how bad your opponent is instead of telling me how qualified you are and what a good job you will do if elected.”

Words worth remembering.