Who Needs Candidates? Election Season is Here!

In Iowa, The bitter bite of a cold winter is synonymous with the bitter bite of political ads. At least, that is the case every four years when we are 10 months out from a presidential election, thanks to Iowa's 'First in the Nation' Caucus status. Now, even with 10 months to go before the midterm congressional elections, some states political and ideological groups are already on the airwaves, attacking incumbents they hope to take down in November. While other groups are attacking individuals just for the very thought of running.

One race that's attracting early advertisers is in New Hampshire, where Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is seeking a second term, and two tax-exempt social welfare organizations (Ending Spending, and Americans for Prosperity) are risking the wrath of the IRS by buying ads against her prior to April 15th.

Republicans are opening up their coin purse for an albeit small, but still surprisingly early, investment of $3100 into ads targeting the vulnerable member of congress who supported The Affordable Care Act, or Obama-Care. Surprising, when any fair and honest coverage of the Healthcare.gov roll out or the 'You can keep your plan....' statements would be sufficient for driving the point home. These 'reminder' attacks to a sitting incombent seem weak compared to Democrats taking steps to begin character assassinations of people who aren't even necessarily running.

Many New Hampshire Republicans hope that Shaheen will be challenged by former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who recently moved into the state full time. National and state Democratic committees have run a few ads sniping at his old Senate record from a group much more ominously called 'Senate Majority PAC', who is going beyond the coin purse and cashing in some Bar Mitzvah bonds to the tune of $150,000 to call dibs on casting the first stone.

One of the high points of the 2008 election for me. The general election was, relatively speaking, free of major smear and attack ads. Granted, the main reasons wer that Obama didn't need to and McCain didn't want to come across as a racist. Unlike the 2012 Presidential election where Obama had to come after Romney to paint him as one of the super rich snobs rather then defend his record. And, Romney was obviously being racist when he talked about things like 'law and order' and 'love of family'. Wait a minute, I have to self correct here, McCain did say anything about Obama, and that made him a racist.

Going back to the example from New Hampshire as a microcosm of what may be coming to the nation stage this election cycle leaves one with a bleak outlook. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, surely to go up into the millions as we near the actual election, being spent smearing and attacking people just for thinking about running. With so many big names already being tossed around for a Presidential run in 2016, I would not be terribly surprised if we begin to see attack ads against Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz this time next year, 2 years before the election and 6 months before anyone announces their candidacy.

There is plenty of fodder out there for the mid term election. What little the congress is doing is at best horribly polarizing and at worst paving the path off a tall cliff for this country to careen off of. From NSA to IRS to ACA, there is no shortage of acronyms that rise the ire of many Americans, and therefore no visible limit to how nasty this next election cycle is shaping up to be. Forget global warming, it will be cold and bitter just by turning on your TV.