The Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) has been running the ad below locally, apparently in an attempt to unseat incumbent Republicans in the state legislature. They are also embarking on a direct mail campaign using the same tactic.
I can think of many reasons to want politicians from both parties unseated, but this ad may actually backfire.
Here is a very fair criticism of the content of the ad from WRAL, but that's not the point I will make.
Here's the problem with the NRDC's ad: it will probably help these three politicians get re-elected. By running this ad on television and direct mailing voters in the politicians' respective districts, the group that hopes to unseat these three politicians (and more), is simply increasing the name recognition among voters of Chad Barefoot, Wesley Meredith and Ron Rabin.
Voters are largely ignorant of almost all issues, and political advertising tends to have negligible, if any, effect on voters and whether or not they turn out. In fact, it oftentimes works against leftist politicans and their allies.
So what effect will the NRDC's advertising have on Barefoot, Meredith and Rabin? Voters may not pay attention to the ads, and when they go to vote these issues are not on the slate for which they will vote. But guess what they will read once they receive their ballot? The names Chad Barefoot, Wesley Meredith and Ron Rabin. And guess what? Voters, many who vote based on names they recognize, now have three names they will recall due to these ads shown repeatedly on tv.
Don't believe it? In Michigan in 2006, which has a partisan election for state Supreme Court justices, saw three conservative justices re-elected despite a negative advertising campaign paid for by a coalition of left-leaning groups seeking to unseat the three. The television ads, which aired over and over and over for months, repeated the refrain, "Markman, Taylor and Young. Oh my" to the tune of "Lions, tigers and bears. Oh my" form the Wizard of Oz. The three were re-elected in a landslide, and the left realized afterwards that their campaign did nothing but keep in the minds of voters the names of Stephen Markman, Clifford Taylor and Robert Young.
Full disclosure: Justice Markman taught at Hillsdale College when I was there, and also gave a talk for me on behalf of Omicron Delta Epsilon. The three were also on the winning side of County of Wayne v. Hathcock, which overturned the 1980 Michigan Supreme Court Poletown decision. It was a very thoughtful opinion written by Justice Young that vilified the 1980 justices for their judicial overreach.
Here's the ad against Barefoot, Meredith and Rabin.