The ugliest (and most cringeworthy) N.J. political attacks

By S.P. Sullivan | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

New Jersey's race for governor took a dark turn last week when Republican candidate Kim Guadagno released an ad attacking Democratic rival Phil Murphy over his support of sanctuary cities featuring a menacing photo of an illegal immigrant convicted of rape and murder.

The TV spot drew comparisons to the infamous “Willie Horton” ad run by President George H.W. Bush in his 1988 campaign against Michael Dukakis ad. But take a dive into the archives and you’ll find New Jersey electoral politics has a long record of attack ads and low-blows on the stump.

Here’s a brief history of the good, the bad and the ugly.

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1982: The attack that would come back

Before he won an election and launched a long career in the U.S. Senate, Frank Lautenberg insinuated his opponent, a colorful 72-year-old congresswoman named Millicent Fenwick, was too old for the Senate.

He would come to regret it.

Lautenberg won the Senate seat and held it until 2013, when he died at the age of 89.

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1989: A tale of two Pinocchios

It was 1989, and audiences in movie theaters were being wowed by the special effects in films like "Back to the Future Part II," "Pet Sematary" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

But on their televisions, New Jersey voters watched in horror as the nose of Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Courter grew and grew in a cheesy attack ad run by his opponent, Democrat Jim Florio.

The ad ticks of a list of alleged lies told by the conservative Courter, including a claim about toxic waste on one of his properties and a flip-flop on abortion.

''Poor Pinocchio,'' the narrator said in the ad as Courter's nose grew. ''Jim Courter's giving you a bad name.''

In retaliation, Courter soon ran his own ad featuring a Pinocchio-ed Florio.

Neither man won the Oscar, though Florio won the governorship.

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In this C-SPAN clip, Steve Adubato discusses the race -- including the ads.

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1993: The drunk driver and the menacing gunman

Florio's next race put him up against Republican Christie Whitman. Carl Golden, Whitman's former press secretary, said the Democrat ratcheted up the attack ads in that race.

In one instance, Florio ran an ad featuring "a shadowy, menacing figure holding an assault rifle” outside a school, accusing Whitman of being too tepid in her support of New Jersey’s assault weapons ban.

"It was pretty graphic, with sound effects and all the rest,” he said. In another, the Florio campaign took on Whitman’s position that first-time DUI offenders should have access to provisional licenses allowing them to drive to and from work, Golden said.

“It was shot from the inside of a moving car and clearly the person at the wheel was under the influence,” Golden recalled. "The Florio campaign decided (Whitman’s provisional license support) meant she was in favor of letting drunk drivers all over the road."

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1996: Fake News (Sad!)

"The 1996 Senate race will go down in the annals as one of New Jersey’s nastiest," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, of the contest between Republican Dick Zimmer and Democrat Robert  Torricelli.

"But the line was really overstepped when Zimmer ran an ad that was purposely designed to trick viewers into thinking they were watching a bona fide news report."

According to an October 1996 Star-Ledger report, the ad used an actress dressed as news anchor "to relay 'news' of  several embarrassing political controversies that involved the Democrat.

"These scandals have raised new questions about Bob Torricelli's character and fitness for office," the phony anchor said.

It was fake news before there was Fake News, and the backlash prompted some stations to craft disclaimers to play before the ads, which were eventually pulled.

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2009: Christie "threw his weight around"

While the attacks of insults hurled by Gov. Chris Christie against his opponents over two terms could fill a book, it was an ad targeted at Christie that made the most waves in his first campaign.

Democrat Jon Corzine, then the incumbent trying to fend off a challenge from Christie, ran an ad attacking Christie's driving record and accusing him of using his influence to get out of traffic tickets. Using slow-motion footage of Christie stepping out of a car, the narrator declares Christie "threw his weight around as U.S. Attorney."

The ad prompted a backlash and a wave of national media stories about Christie's longtime struggle with his weight. Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University, called it the "second-biggest backfire attack ad ever."

"Guadagno's is first," he added. 
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(Dis)honorable mention: "The shady bunch"

Attack ads in New Jersey haven't been limited to high-profile races for governor or the Senate. Local politics — particularly in Hudson County — can be just as bareknuckle.

Few local races have produced as colorful an attack as the 2015 race between state lawmaker and North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco and challenger Larry Wainstein.

The ad, parodying a 1970s television staple, accused Wainstein of associating himself with a "shady bunch."

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(Dis)honorable mention: Meyner's television trick

NJ Advance Media consulted political pros and experts for this story. Among them was David Wildstein, no stranger to political dirty tricks. Wildstein (a former political blogger known as Wally Edge) was an architect of the lane closure scheme at the heart of the Bridgegate scandal, who avoided federal prison by cooperating with the feds.

What does he consider the most notorious political ad in Garden State history?

"Nothing tops the first year New Jersey gubernatorial candidates used television ads: 1957.

"Gov. Robert Meyner was running for a second term against State Sen. Malcolm Forbes, the millionaire magazine publisher. Meyner bought the 10-11PM timeslot the night before the election to make his final pitch. Forbes wanted the last word, so he bought 11-midnight. Meyner spoke for 55 minutes, and then his campaign aired the Star-Spangled Banner, followed by a test pattern -- that was the way TV stations ended their day in the era before 24-hour broadcasting. Many New Jerseyans, figuring TV was closed for the night, turned off their televisions and never saw the Forbes ad."

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S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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