Democrats knew the attacks were coming. And like clockwork, just as their political fortunes appeared to improve earlier this summer, Republicans pounced, battering Democrats with a barrage of “soft on crime” attacks just weeks before election day.
With voters identifying crime as a top concern in recent surveys, Republicans have increasingly turned to an old playbook: centering their closing pitch of the midterm campaign on crime. Over the last several weeks, Republicans have ramped up their spending on crime-related messaging, blanketing the airwaves with grisly television ads that cast Democrats as “dangerously liberal”, “different” and enablers of lawlessness.
