Tyler’s Desperate Attack Misses Target

I picked over a year ago that the State Senate race in Conway between Sen. Jason Rapert and Rep. Linda Tyler would be one for the ages.  So far it has not disappointed.

The latest is a strange attack from Tyler that really should cause Conway voters to question her credibility.

Tyler’s campaign put out a press release today accusing Rapert of failing to report $51,501.50 in expenditures for campaign ads on his campaign disclosure form.

“Mr. Rapert’s failure to report such a large campaign expenditure begs several questions,” said Linda Tyler in the press release. “Does he know what is actually on his campaign’s financial reports? Is Mr. Rapert intentionally hiding this information from Arkansas voters? Is someone else paying for this ad?”

The problem is that Tyler is just flat out wrong.

“My firm, Diamond State Consulting, bought the ads. As of October 1st we had not billed the Rapert campaign for the expenditures. All laws regarding disclosure and reporting have been followed to the fullest,” said political consultant Keith Emis. “The accusations from the Tyler campaign are completely baseless.”

So why would Tyler make such an absurd, easily explainable accusation?  Emis offers his explanation.

“Polling shows that Linda Tyler is losing this race badly. She is looking for any attack, no matter how baseless, to change the trajectory of this election,” said Emis whose firm correctly predicted the Republicans’ success in the 2010 state legislative races based on their state-level polling.

Tyler’s attack is certainly a “shoot first, ask questions later” strategy in the hopes that in slinging a little mud, she might get some of it to stick.  It seems facts don’t seem to matter much to her.