Mark DiBiasio is a registered Republican in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, which means his mailbox is brimming with campaign mailers.
Ten Republicans are trying to win the May 8 primary this year. But one particular candidate, wealthy businessman and former state Sen. Robert Pittenger, is bombarding voters with glossy paper.
“I get half a dozen fliers from him in the same week – sometimes twice a day,” said DiBiasio, 55, an IT consultant who runs a local blog in the Charlotte suburbs.
DiBiasio sent one of Pittenger’s mailers to Spin Detectors. We noticed his tweet about an attack mailer and asked him for a copy. We found the flier falsely claims that one of Pettinger’s opponents was a “Big Money Donor to Democrats” and that another challenger broke a tax pledge.
DiBiasio supports Dan Barry, one of the mailer’s targets. But DiBiasio said he has a problem with attack ads in general.
“I think they’re important if they’re issue related,” DiBiasio said. “But these are personal attacks. I haven’t liked personal attacks since they became more prevalent in the 1990s. Attack ads often damage the attacker more than they do the intended victim.”
– Ben Finley
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