US midterm campaign getting serious

Or nasty, depending on your perspective:

The result of the dueling accusations has been what both sides described on Tuesday as the most toxic midterm campaign environment in memory. It is a jarring blend of shadowy images, breathless announcers, jagged music and a dizzying array of statistics, counterstatistics and vote citations — all intended to present the members of Congress and their challengers in the worst possible light. Democratic and Republican strategists said they expected over 90 percent of the advertisements to be broadcast by Nov. 7 to be negative...

When he was a quarterback, it didn't matter that he wasn't paying $69,000 in taxes," Mr. Reynolds said. "When you run for Congress, it matters."

Mr. Reynolds burst out laughing when asked why he was not using more positive advertisements. "If they moved things to the extent that negative ads move things, there would be more of them," he said.