The ad war heats up in the 23rd district, going negative early

This morning, Martha and I talked about the good, the bad, and the ugly of the first wave of TV spots in the special election campaign. Go here to check that out.

The big take-away is that the campaigns are all going negative early, in some cases before they’ve even taken time to introduce their own candidates.

Also worth noting that Conservative Doug Hoffman tees off with a mention of a big social issue — gay marriage — instead of leading with the fiscal conservative stuff that he said would be central to his campaign.

Here are links to all the spots that we discuss:

From Conservative Doug Hoffman, a mocking attack on Dede Scozzafava.

From Republican Dede Scozzafava, a rather muddled self-introduction. (Is she saying special interests are a good thing?)

From the Republican National Congressional Committee, a clumsy attack that links Bill Owens to Nancy Pelosi.

From Democrat Bill Owens, two soft and fuzzy messages about the candidate.

And from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, an attack ad on Scozzafava that the Watertown Daily Times panned as “false.”