When God Gives You Mark Robinson, Make Lemonade

The most recent round of polls suggests that Josh Stein, the Democratic nominee for governor in North Carolina, is ahead of his Republican adversary, Mark Robinson, by nearly 16 points. That surprises exactly no one. Robinson has always been a ridiculous candidate for the highest office in the country’s ninth most populous state, and since he won the Republican nomination in March, he has been rocked by revelations about his past statements and behavior. The only people who have fled his sinking ship faster than voters are his own campaign staff, which, to go by some reports, is down to a doomed crew that could fit into a dinghy.

But his spectacularly turbulent voyage casts Stein’s smooth sailing as a matter of extraordinary luck when, in fact, Stein and his aides have consistently demonstrated the kind of smarts that might have given them an edge even if Robinson weren’t such a disaster. I’ve been especially impressed with their ad campaign. It should be remembered and emulated long after Nov. 5.

Not that most or even many future candidates will have opponents who give them a feast of material to rival the buffet that Robinson spread out for Stein. Before Robinson emerged as a possible contender for governor, he had a habit — actually, more a vocation — of using social media and public appearances to stake out extreme right-wing positions in the brashest, meanest way possible. There’s video of him — on social media, on various stages — ranting about all the evil in America and all the evildoers to be vanquished. It’s strangely mesmerizing to watch.

And the people working with the Stein campaign clearly watched all of it. But while that’s Politics 101, they also did something less obvious: In a disciplined fashion, they decided to get as far out of Robinson’s way as possible.

In many of the 14 television commercials that the Stein campaign has produced since its ad campaign began in June, Robinson is the star, with Stein refraining from even a fleeting voice-over cameo to denounce whatever ugliness Robinson is shown uttering.

That’s what’s so effective. Any political consultant with any acumen and experience will tell you how jaded voters are. They’ve seen attack ads galore and regard most politicians as sharks; Candidate A’s screed about Candidate B is ipso facto untrustworthy. And suspiciously short, disjointed, context-free snippets of Candidate B seeming to say something untoward during an unguarded moment also emit the stench of political trickery. Viewer beware.