Election '82: Slinging Mud and Money

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Can anything be done? Of course, but it probably will not be. Many suggestions have been made to limit political spending while still permitting citizens, businesses and special-interest groups to support the races of candidates they like. Among them: public funding of congressional campaigns, tighter limits on PAC contributions, a legislated lid on the TV time that stations can sell to candidates. But incumbents, many of whom benefit from their ability to raise and spend more than would-be challengers, are unlikely to vote for any such measures. Says Thomas Houston, chairman of California's fair political practices commission: "Oh, there will be talk of reform. People will write letters and editorials; legislators will complain about the time wasted fund raising. But the public will lose interest."

Like spending, negative campaigning this year reached heights not experienced in a long time. "It was the worst I've seen in 18 years in politics," says Tony Coelho, chairman of the Democratic congressional campaign committee. One reason is that candidates have more money to hire consultants and admen who will search out, or if necessary invent, flaws in an opponent's record and then craft ads that will magnify and distort them.

Some especially noxious examples: Tennessee Republican Robin Beard ran a TV commercial in which a Fidel Castro look-alike delightedly lit a cigar with a $100 bill and intoned: "Muchissimas gracias, Senor Sasser." The false implication was that Beard's opponent, Democratic Senator Jim Sasser, had voted for foreign aid appropriations that had somehow benefited Communist Cuba. In California, Republican Peter Cost, a candidate for the state assembly, showed a TV spot in which three actors dressed up to look like especially vicious convicts sat around in a jail cell and praised Cost's opponent, Democrat Sam Farr, for opposing the death penalty.

Happily, some of the worst advertising failed or even boomeranged. Beard and Cost were both defeated. In Massachusetts, Republican Margaret Heckler lost her House race to Democrat Barney Frank in part because of her ads charging that Frank, while a state legislator, had favored prostitution and pornography; Frank in fact had voted for a bill to set up adult-entertainment zones where police could more easily monitor those activities. Half the voters questioned in exit polls conducted by station WBZ-TV called Heckler's ads objectionable.