Presidential association: Effective strategy in the Bob Casey Pennsylvania Senate Campaign

Abstract

Of all the competitive races of the 2006-midterm elections, the Pennsylvania Senate race between Bob Casey Jr. and Rick Santorum stood at the top of the list of elections that would prove to have serious implications in deciding the partisan majority of the Senate. Although the race was characterized by many of the common aspects of campaign wars and election politics such as negative attack ads, the building of grassroots support bases and the use of get out the vote tactics, one of the most notable strategies of the race was Bob Casey's use of speeches and media ads to create an association between incumbent Rick Santorum and President Bush in the minds of potential voters. This strategy would prove to be ingenious as it perfectly catered to the sentiments of the majority of the potential voters who sought to make the 2006-midterm elections "a referendum on President Bush" himself (Eberhart). By establishing an almost unbreakable bond between the President and Mr. Santorum, the Casey camp intended for voters to be able to use their vote for Casey and against Santorum as a direct critique of the President's performance